


The Zootopian Chronicles I: Earth

by Menser



Series: The Zootopian Chronicles [1]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/M, Gen, Other, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 116,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8205896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menser/pseuds/Menser
Summary: Citizens of Zootopia are missing. Nick and  Judy are on the case but Judy has disappeared and finds herself as a lab experiment of furless creatures bent on the destruction of herself and possibly all of Zootopia. Can anyone help her in a land where animals like herself have no rights? There is a huge conspiracy both on Zootopia and Earth where humans are involved and Nick and Finnick and Bogo and Judy’s sister Tala all try to find out what happened to Judy and discover the truth behind this monumental scheme while Judy is helped by a few rare humans to try and stay alive and figure out how to stop this same conspiracy from destroying her world. It was written as if it was a Science Fiction novel with logic and scientific explanation for things like the AU and dimensional travel and all characters make logical and rational decisions based on their personality and the situation.It starts off dark but it is a story of redemption for humanity as well as the main OC.  It is a story of love and growing up.  It is not black and white but a lot of gray.It is also an exercise in looking at Humanity and Human culture through the eyes of a Zootopian.





	1. Welcome to Your Living Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first major work as an author and it was a learning experience. Should I have chosen a much smaller simpler story? Sure but that is not my style as I like a real challenge. The work just recently underwent a facelift. Every chapter was re-edited for consistency and errors especially the early ones which had quite a number of issues. The edit was completed on Dec 10th. This fixed many issues with inconsistent POV sometimes in the same paragraph. It was a mess but again I was still learning when it was written. Also some areas were enhanced to make them clearer based on feedback received since it was first published in August. Much of the dialog style change in the later part of the work as the work became much more dialogue heavy and I wanted a faster more real time flow to the conversations as it was read.
> 
> The final 11 Chapters were rock solid and represent roughly 50% of the total word content as early chapters were a fraction of the size of later ones. So bear with my growing pains in the early part of the work. There is some excellent stuff but the best stuff is at the end as I began to figure out how everything works.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus begins the epic story of redemption in many forms. A warning, not everything is as it seems. In reality rarely is anything black or white, but instead usually it is a whole lot of gray. This is no exception. As we begin our journey let me ask that you forgive the early chapters of the work as the author was still learning. I promise things improve quite a lot in the second half. The idea was to try writing something different than anything out there and I hope I have succeeded.

_Blackness_

As she slowly opened her eyes, she immediately closed them as the bright light coming in was almost blinding. Her head felt like a thousand jackhammers had been pounding on it non-stop. Her body was sore all over seemingly in every crevice. Finally when she felt she could muster the strength, she slowly opened her eyes again letting in the bright light blinding her until her eyes finally adjusted.

Once open she began to take in her surroundings and immediately noticed she was in a cage. A small cage at that. Nothing like the detention cells she knew. There was a silver bowl in front of her filled with what appeared to be greenish pellets and a large bottle in the corner that was inverted and a tube extended from the bottom with a round metal ball at the end.

She looked down curiously and saw thin shavings of an unknown sweet smelling wood all over the bottom of the cage. Continuing her visual exploration, she looked down further and saw some long thin light gray feet with white toes and furry gray legs below her. This didn't surprise her because she was a rabbit and those things were supposed to be there. What did surprise her was that she was completely naked.

"Sweet cheese and crackers!" She exclaimed in shock but what came out was a high pitched squeak that only someone with her amazing hearing could even make out. She grasped her neck with her paws as she felt a shocking vibration from her throat and realized she was wearing some kind of collar. This collar appeared to suppress her speech and gave her a very unpleasant jolt anytime she attempted to utter a sound.

This was the first time Judy, as this was her name, began to get a very cold sick feeling all over her body that started at her head and slowly worked its way down to her fluffy white tail until she felt she was going to vomit. She tried to slowly stand up as she wasn't used to crouching on all fours, but hit her head on the top of the cage and had to crouch back down. For Judy was no ordinary rabbit, she was an intelligent, highly evolved anthropomorphic rabbit not some dumb bunny. However she didn't feel very special at the moment, but rather frightened and quite a bit panicked if truth be told.

She told herself to calm down, that she had been in much worse situations although at the moment she was doubting this just a bit. It was then that she noticed her cage was in a lab of some sort. She could see a wall with a rectangular window in front of her, and a door she judged to be about two meters tall over to the left. Her cage was on some sort of white table, and the room was filled with a lot of lab equipment she recognized and much she did not. There were test tubes and various monitors and analysis equipment. There was a clear glass cabinet that appeared to be full of vials and medications. She spied notebooks, several computers and something that stopped her cold. She saw surgical equipment. Scalpels, a bone saw, clamps and numerous other items she had viewed in the forensic lab when she had visited the coroner in the basement of the precinct. For this rabbit was a police officer. And a police officer that was starting to get quite a bit pissed at the moment.

It was then that her ears shot up and banged the top of her cage as she heard a noise coming from the room across from her. There was a click and the sound of a door opening in an outer room following by some footsteps and movement on the other side of the window. She made out a fairly large figure about the height of a panther wearing a white lab coat, glasses and a mask. But this was no panther or anything close to it as it appeared to have a pale sickly looking face with no fur and some brown fur, no not fur but strands of hair on its head. Judy shuddered as she guessed this creature had some sick disease and had to wear a mask and gloves to prevent it from spreading this disease to other animals.

She then heard a tonal beeping sound coming from the area near the door to her left, and saw it open followed by the diseased creature in white entering the room. Judy was already in the corner of her cage but unconsciously pushed herself further into the corner so hard she thought she was going to push herself out of the cage and into tiny cubes. The figure noticed her then as it moved in front of her cage. She had laid her head down beneath her paws trying to pretend she was invisible, but curiosity finally caused her to glance up out of the corner of her eye exposing the terrifying visage of the creature staring intently at her. It had beady small brown eyes behind glasses and sweat gathering on its forehead. This was part of the disease Judy rationed as it must have some kind of fever. The strange creature then surprisingly spoke and Judy surprisingly found she could understand it.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" It said in an inquisitive gravelly tone. "Dr. Meyers had said we had a special new specimen to analyze, but something tells me you are a lot more special than anything I have seen in awhile."

It then turned away and began to work on one of the computers entering some information and then opened a drawer and pulled a thin metal tube out and placed one of the vials she had seen into it and turned to return to her cage.

Judy then realized in horror that the tube it was holding was a large syringe with a long needle sprouting from it. The creature slid a latch on the cage and Judy heard a click. She then understood it was opening the cage and this was her chance to escape. She began to coil her body like a spring with her back feet partially pressed against the back of the cage for leverage and readied herself to lunge as soon as she saw an opening. The small door then opened and she saw the creature's paw, well if you could call it a paw as it was gloved and had four small extensions of varying size and a thicker one sticking out on the side. She really didn't have time to dwell on this as she was focused on escape when she pressed hard against the back and then suddenly lunged toward the opening.

Unfortunately the creature appeared to be ready for such an action, and grabbed her around the neck with this strange paw-like appendage and harshly pushed her head first into the other back corner causing excruciating pain. She began to shout out and curse when she got a shock and remembered the collar around her neck. Then she felt a sharp pain in her rear near her fluffy white tail as what she guessed was the needle was inserted deep into her already sore backside.

"Gotcha!" The creature exclaimed with what sounded like pride. "You critters are **SO** predictable."

Judy didn't know what a critter was, but she felt sorry for them and sorry for herself.

Then she felt another sharp pain in her side and felt what she assumed was a knife of some sort cutting into her fur and then into her flesh. She had never felt pain so intense before. She screamed instinctively and got another much more intense shock from her collar as the creature bellowed, "Hold still you little shit!"

She realized then she had been squirming and its grip then got much tighter. She felt another extreme pain as some of her flesh and fur were cut away and dropped into a clear flat cylindrical container she had seen the creature put into its coat pocket earlier.

She felt the strange paw release its grip from around her neck and heard the door to the cage door slide shut. She didn't dare turn around for fear the creature would be back for more torment, but just held herself in the corner it had pushed her into and closed her eyes. She heard the sound of what she assumed was a vial being inserted into one of the machines and some whirring sounds. Next, she listened as the door of one of the cabinets was opened and something was placed inside. Finally she heard the sound of a door open and close with a click followed by footsteps and a second click as the lights went out followed further by the sound of another door open and shut with a final click. Only then did Judy turn around and see the room was in complete darkness with only the faint lights of the various machines to see by, and only the faint buzz of the machines to keep her company.

She was alone and helpless and being tortured by a strange creature for some unknown reason. Where the heck was she and what was she going to do? She had never felt so low in her entire life. Not even when she had hurt her best friend because of some careless statements at a press conference. After that he had rejected her and wouldn't even speak to her. But at least she had her family to support her then. "I wonder where they are?" She thought and realized that no one even knew she was here. She formed a ball in the corner of the cage and began to sob in utter despair until she finally passed out from exhaustion.


	2. The Undercover Gig

Drew had been working at Cryodyne for over a week and was getting extremely frustrated. He had only taken this job because one of his contacts in B.A.D. had believed some serious shady shit was going on there, but he hadn't seen a damn thing. It had taken two weeks to hack their system, steal an I.D. and fake a personnel record in order to get into this place. But he was running out of time before they discovered he was a fake and did who knows what to him. Drew wasn't an overly brave guy, to be honest he was a bit of a coward. He felt only brave behind the anonymity of a computer and did his fighting with the keyboard and his knowledge of ways around system security.

The only reason he was even here at all was because all the other operatives were busy on more important missions, and Phil had insisted the window for the position they has falsified was only good for the next two weeks. After that there would be no opportunity to find out what was going on. But he had searched everywhere in the facility, and accessed every file he could locate looking for anything sketchy but had found absolutely nothing. The two weeks were almost up and he had absolutely nothing to show for his time there. He thought _a_ _ll this risk for jack shit,_ _what a waste_.

The way they searched every tiny thing anytime he went in or out of this place, you would think they were guarding Fort Knox or the secrets of the universe or something. The only place he hadn't been about to explore was a hallway where he had seen some scientists in lab coats and administration officials going into from time to time, but any time he had gone near that place he been stopped and directed elsewhere. If anything in this place was off, it had to be down there, but Drew didn't see any way through that hall without getting caught. Drew was a coward after all, but he justified his inaction by convincing himself that he wouldn't do anyone any good if he was caught.

But time was running out and blowing his only assignment was not sitting well with him. He was tired of getting all the boring grunt work, and felt pretty useless most of the time. He thought, _I would have done more for the organization if I had just applied myself like my college buddies and gotten a good computer job in Silicon Valley with Google or someone_ _similar_ _and just donated to the cause. Well it wasn't too late, maybe I will give Will a call and see if he could get me a job somewhere out there._

He was daydreaming about having a nice safe job with no risk and almost missed catching one of the maintenance guys he had seen from time to time going down that mysterious hall carting several crates and boxes of equipment. It was here that he finally had an idea, but immediately dismissed it as being too dangerous.

He sat stewing for a couple minutes and then thought, _Ah Fuck it, if I get caught I will be able to hopefully get no jail time and finally leave B.A.D. and get on with my life._ Before he could talk himself out of it, he grabbed his "private" toolkit, portable hard drive and tablet and headed toward where he had seen the maintenance guy, Bill, he believed his name was.

Bill was hanging out near the snack machines and greeted Drew as he approached, only he didn't call him Drew since he knew him as Fredrick Gonzales. Why they couldn’t get a non-Latin sounding name was beyond him, but Phil said this was the only personnel file available, and they had already gotten the real Fredrick out of the way with a surprise secret vacation for him and his new spouse.

Bill greeted him with a "Hola, Fredrico" with a jovial grin as it was a running joke that he didn’t look remotely Latino except for his dark hair, but he had used the excuse that he was only a quarter Mexican, but the bastard loved to tease him anyway.

Drew asked him about the boxes and this Bill mentioned they were doing some major expansion in the south east zone. He then asked him if he could assist him and was told, "I wish, but only blue zone employees are allowed there.“

“What is so special about this place?”

Bill answered with typical indifference, "Must be some proprietary research or something. All I see is a lot of labs and scientists. Maybe they have some dangerous pathogens or chemicals down there. I don't get paid to ask questions so I don't if you know what I mean."

Drew did and was determined now more than ever to see what they had going on down there. He was considering possible options when Bill asked if he could watch the equipment while he went to the restroom and he responded affirmatively. Bill left and Drew began to look over the equipment carefully. There were several boxes for computers and monitors, some chemical and blood analysis equipment, several large machines he had no clue the purpose of and then noticed one of the boxes held a cabinet with glass shelves. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, he removed the shelves and placing them to the side. With the shelves removed there might be just enough room for him to squeeze inside and shut the box. With the coast clear, he crawled inside and stuffed himself into the cabinet pulling the side of the box shut holding it tight with his fingers.

He hated cramped dark spaces and the nervousness was already causing perspiration to gather on his forehead and under his armpits. This was the craziest thing he had ever tried and doubted it would work, but no guts no glory he thought imagining all the morons who said that same thing to themselves right before they died in a horrible accident.

He was just about to chicken out when he heard Bill return from the restroom and curse when he saw he was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn Mexicans, can't depend on them for anything." He heard the maintenance worker utter to himself.

He hoped that if he was caught he could at least take this guy’s racist ass down with him, but it would be a small consolation because he realized these Cryodyne guys played serious when it came to security breaches.

After a few minutes he heard Bill on the phone with someone, "Alright hold your water, I'm coming goddammit!"

Then he felt the cart move. He heard Bill grumble about the cart feeling heavier, but the racist cocksucker seemed to think he just felt weaker after the massive crap he had just taken.

After moving along for about two minutes, some voices were heard followed by Bill asking someone to open the security doors so he could drop this crap off. After some discussion, they were waved through and apparently headed down a long hall. At least it seemed to be a long hall based on the echo and the fact that there were no turns for quite awhile. They turned into what must have been a storage room, and Bill began to remove some of the boxes from the cart.

Drew began to panic. What was he going to do when the box he was in was moved? He was still considering possible actions when the cart began to move again and headed down the hall stopping before a room. He heard a rustle of some papers and then the sound of a code being punched into a keypad followed by a door being opened and the squeak of the wheels as the cart was wheeled into a room. The rustling of papers followed by copious swearing suggested Bill was not pleased with the contents of the paperwork. It was at this point Drew slid the side of his box aside and managed to peek out enough to see Bill with his back to himself facing another door with a keypad. Figuring this was his best chance, he completely slid the side of the box off and crawled out of the cabinet the best he could heading toward a nearby table he had spotted. He nearly forgot to slide the side of the box back in place, but quickly turned around and pushed it back in as best he could before rolling under the table just as Bill turned back glancing around.

"What the hell was that?" An annoyed voice uttered as the figure standing directly in front of him appeared to look around. But Drew managed to keep the cart and it’s contents between the figure and himself. A voice muttered something and the figure punched in a code and opened the second door wheeling the cart into the attached room.

Drew wanted to bolt out the door but didn't have the code and also knew he would be heard if he attempted such an action. So he waited patiently while the lab equipment was setup in between swearing. There was quite an intense session of swearing once Bill discovered the cabinet that had its glass shelves removed requiring reassembly. Drew then moved under the desk across from the outer door and waited for Bill to leave. He carefully watched the keypad as 82880 was punched on the keypad in order to exit the room. It did help that each number was uttered out loud as they were punched in. Thank God for slack maintenance men like him.

He waited a few minutes for Bill and his cart to head out of view glancing after the retreating figure and then looked around the room noticing some lab coats, masks and gloves. After a brief costume change, he decked himself out like he had seen the scientists in this section attired and punched the code for the door releasing the lock opening the door a crack and slowly sticking his head out to look both ways to make sure the coast was clear. Looking around he found a directory which told him he was in the laboratory section. There was a section for storage, maintenance, an operating theater, analysis, testing and research center and finally a server room. He stopped as he read this now realizing why he had been unable to find anything on any of their servers. These guys had a compartmentalized system with no outside access. He decided this was where he needed to go to possibly find answers and headed toward the server room.

It was as he was on my way that he noticed something that caught his eye. There was a cage in one of the labs. His skin went cold and a chill went up his spine. This was the reason he was here. _I knew those fucking bastards were up to no good._ He tried to get a closer look to see what was in the cage when he noticed someone in the lab and barely moved his head out of the way before the figure turned and looked his way. _Close one._ He decided to head down to the server room first and check back on the lab when it was less “occupado”.

He chuckled to himself thinking that Mr. Gonzalez is about to get in a hell of a lot of trouble, but the anger from seeing the cage was starting to replace any fear. He was actually starting to feel excitement and now imagined this was how the agents must feel on their assignments. But he was about to do something none of those "agents" could do as he located the door to the server room and quickly glanced inside the glass pane to make sure it was empty. He pulled out his handy toolkit and attached it to the code box on the door. He started the decryption algorithm and waited while it worked on the code. He tried the five digit combination initially but realized these guys must only use five digits for their lab doors. As he tried successively higher sequences, he realized this may take longer than he had anticipated. He laughed when he thought of all the movies he had seen when people had cracked these codes in seconds. Ludicrous. But he guessed it wouldn't make for good entertainment if you watched someone wait five minutes or more while a code cracker ran through every permutation. He just hoped no one happened by while he was attempting this as it would be quite difficult to explain. Fortunately he heard a beep as the code was finally identified followed by several sliding sounds as the numerous locking mechanisms were released.

He quickly entered the server room and found an admin terminal and connected his portable drive using a 2-channel 10Gbps Thunderbolt interface. He quickly located any files relating to research, laboratories, planning and anything that looked proprietary or important he could find and copied them to his portable. Once it was almost full he also gathered any building diagrams, security access information and plans for any of the facilities in their network. He wished he could have filled more but the 16TB Samsung SSD PM1633a stored enough data to keep him busy for quite some time. After disconnecting from the terminal, he quietly slipped out of the room heading back towards the labs and the room with the cage.

He found the room he was looking for and glanced inside to make sure no one was using it. He attached the portable toolkit to the entry pad and waited a minute for it to find the five digit number he needed. Entering the room he saw the light was off. After turning the light on he looked into the window and at the cage. He didn't see anything inside, but didn't have the best view so he accessed the keypad to the inner room and opened the door. He headed straight for the cage in the corner and peered inside expected to see some eyes looking back at me. What he saw was... nothing. Nothing was inside the cage. It was then that he noticed the tray on the other side of the room. There on the tray he saw something gray and furry and rushed over and stopped short. What he saw was something out of a horror movie. The creature whatever it was lying spread eagle sliced open and pinned to the board. Part of the organs had been removed and bloody surgical tools were still laying next to this horrific scene. He noticed the creature had a white thin collar around it's neck which he assumed must have been some kind of tracking and monitoring device. The look on its face would haunt him the rest of my life. It looked to be in utter terror and pain.

His heart like it had sunk down his body and the knot in stomach clenched as if a fist was inside strangling it and his head felt light and dizzy. Suddenly he vomited all of the floor spewing the entire contents of his stomach every direction as he bent over holding his knees to keep himself upright. He breathed in heaving breaths trying to gain air feeling the burn of the stomach acids and bile in his nose and throat.

After a couple of minutes he shook his head and cursed himself for being such a pansy ass and not doing something sooner as he might have saved this poor gray creature had he gotten to the room even a couple hours before. But he realized there was nothing else he could do for it now. He wished he could give it a proper burial, but knew that he couldn't do anything that might give myself away and had to get this data out of the facility as soon as possible.

He cleaned up all trace of the vomit using cloths and towels he found in the lab and put all this into a hazardous waste chute for burning. Leaving a pile of DNA evidence would not be a smart thing to do with the capability of these guys. Heading down the hall he realized he still didn't have a plan for how he was going to get **out** of the hallway and sooner or later they would check on him once he did not exit the facility at the appointed time. He was contemplating this as he reached the end of the lab section when he caught the gleam of something in the last lab. He backed up and looked intently into the dark lab on the end. There in the corner he thought he could make a gleam from something metal and round in the corner.


	3. Life In The Cage

Judy had been trapped in this room for what seemed forever. It could have been three days or three weeks or three months for all she knew. She had cried so many times her body was now dehydrated resulting in her desperate attempt to get some water out of the strange upside down water bottle by pressing on the metal ball at the end with her tongue. Initially she had tried to right it and pour it on it's side only to succeed in having it fall off the cage and onto the ground. That had gotten her a reward from her tormentor in the form of a less than gentle strangling the next time the creature had opened the cage and poked her for more blood, fur and tissue samples with a few injections thrown in for grins and giggles.

She could only measure time in visits the creature made which seemed to be somewhat regular periods of time. What these periods actually were remained a mystery but after the tenth time she began to not really care. She wondered why it was even keeping her alive at that point. One time it saw her looking at the surgical tools on the table. The creature got a malevolent grin on its face and seemed to be overjoyed to inform her, "Don't worry, you will have a date with the table soon enough." This was followed by a gleeful cackle. That hideous sound haunted her dreams whenever she actually could dream.

She was thinking of how she gotten into this mess in the first place. She was on a case involving the disappearance of several animals. She and her police partner and best friend Nick were following a lead that several of the mammals, mostly small prey mammals, a beaver, a squirrel, a chipmunk, a ram and a skunk, had been seen near an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of her home city of Zootopia. All these animals were anthropomorphic as well as all the mammals living in this Zootopia. They had not been seen in several days and brought to mind the memories of missing predators and the vicious attacks of these same now savage predators which was perpetrated by a sheep named Bellwether who was the assistant Mayor. The sheep had her goons use an extract of a flower known informally as Night Howlers to cause friendly animals to revert to their uncivilized savage wild nature in order seed fear and distrust of the predators of the city. Judy and Nick single-handedly stopped this threat, but the similarities of that case to their current one brought an uncomfortable déjà vu. Her police partner Nick, a fast talking sly former con-artist fox who she had tricked into helping her in the first place on that case, took on this new case with her over a year after that fateful one which had nearly led to her death at the jaws of her now friend. Her natural enemy was her best friend now, a rehabilitated con artist using his former skills for the betterment of all the citizens of Zootopia. She couldn't be happier or prouder.

She and Nick had been following a series of clues that had led to the warehouse. The place looked abandoned but her ears shot up and her keen hearing had detected the sound of some metal sliding and murmured voices somewhere inside the building. Her partner Nick saw her ears go up and point towards the warehouse. That and the curious and alert look on her face told him something was up and he was about to say something when she motioned for him to shush and pointed inside to where she had heard the sounds and made paw motions indicating what they should do. Nick had nodded and they began to head toward the noise, her approaching carefully from one side and Nick on the other. She could hear the same noises, but could only find a wall and no way down to where they were coming from so she glanced around for a passage down below. She figured she could find the access way and then find Nick so they could investigate. Searching around with her ears alert, her nose began to twitch as she sensed the faint smell of smoke coming from a crack in the floor. Putting her ear to the ground and following her sensitive sniffer, she moved along until the smell became stronger. Her heart accelerated as she was excited to hear the sounds below much clearer, but didn't notice that she had run into a panel on the wall and yelped in surprise as the floor suddenly opened underneath her and she tumbled down a ramp and smashed into some crates below. She shook her head and was gradually rising when she heard a call from above, "Carrots?" She heard her partner Nick call his nickname for her as she had grown up on a carrot farm and he made sure not to let her forget this. It had annoyed her at first, but she wouldn't admit it to him now, but she had grown to love it. She was about to answer back when all of a sudden a shadow loomed up behind her and she found a large paw tightly covering her mouth and felt a tiny pain in her neck and then nothing.

And then she woke in Hell. Naked and stuffed in a cage with a maniac creature constantly torturing her and wondering when she would finally meet her end on the table of knives. She hoped it would be soon because her sanity was not going to last much longer. She tried to think of happy thoughts. Of seeing Nick, or her parents Stu and Bonnie, or her 275 brothers and sisters, or even Chief Bogo. God she wished she could see Chief Bogo again. She smiled thinking of him smashing through the wall and ripping open the cage door. She grinning in glee imagining him grabbing the creature that was torturing her and breaking each one of those appendages on his paws one by one and pounding it into senseless oblivion. Judy was never one to think of harming another living soul not even the sheep that tried to have her killed. But everyone has their limits and Judy had passed hers now and was continuing to descend into the dangerous territory of losing her mind and self identity altogether.

She then began to suspect she was sent to the warehouse on purpose. That her friend Nick was not her friend at all but had sold her to this creature to be the subject of its mad heinous experiments. She could see Nick and Bogo talking together laughing as they counted their money. Nick commented on Judy being the best con he ever had and that she fell for it hook line and sinker. He continued explaining how his deluded partner believed he could actually be friends with a prey animal, a dumb bunny how ridiculous. The only reason he was with her was because she had blackmailed him and he didn't forget but got even. He was the master of the long con and this was the longest con of his life but the payout was so delectably perfect. Bogo laughed as well. Bogo had been trying to get Judy to quit the force from the first moment he had met her. He had tried everything he could possibly think of to be rid of her, but damn it she was a tough one to shake. He berated Nick for helping her to remain on the force, but Nick smiled and told Bogo isn't it so much sweeter now. Nick and Bogo are rid of her, they got their revenge as well as a decent payday. She is going to pay the ultimate price for her stupid dumb bunny dreams of being a cop in Zootopia. She should have stayed on the farm but it is good to cull out the troublemakers and make sure the rest of the dumb rabbits knows what happens to them if they try to be something they can never be. Judy sees the gleeful grins on their faces as they turn to peer at her in the cage. Nick licks his muzzle, grabs some knives and even puts on a bib. Bogo roars back holding his belly and laughs and laughs. Nick turns to the creature in white and says its dinner time, grab the little shit so I can carve a piece for everyone. Tears pour from her eyes as Judy sees the truth of his ultimate con. How could she ever think she could be friends with a fox or be a police officer. What the hell was she thinking. Nick and Bogo seem to know exactly what she is thinking and say "Too late now!" together in unison as the white cloaked creature grasps her by the neck and pulls her from the cage. She struggles thrashing her legs wildly but the creature is too strong. "You'd like me to break your neck I bet!" it cackles "Well I am not going to make it so nice and pleasant for you." It pushes her down on the table and jabs thin metal spikes in her arms and legs so Judy is laid out flat facing up and it then motions Nick over. Nick puts his muzzle down right next to Judy's ear and breathes hot breath in it licking his thin lips and holding the knives over her. He then bends close and whispers "Your mom and dad are next..." with a malicious grin. As Judy starts to process this, the cutting begins and she screams...

Judy suddenly wakes covered in a cold sweat as her ears, always alert even in sleep, pick up the sound of a click at the front. She is relieved to realize that it was just another nightmare, one of many she has had in her time as a captive. But she then realizes that a living nightmare has come to visit in the form of the creature in white. She could make out the outline of the creature entering the room across from the window. Even with the lights off she could see the white of its coat and the mask over it's face and those gloves. The horrible gloves with the paws that weren't paws.

She closed her eyes as she saw the light suddenly come on and heard cursing from the creature as she heard it walk into the room. She slowly opened her eyes as they gradually became used to the light and made out the creature standing in front of her cage. She closed her eyes again and wished she was anywhere else but here. She heard some fiddling with her cage door a bit more of the cursing. Maybe the door had shocked it like it had shocked her anytime she had attempted to find a way to open it. She hoped so. She hoped it hurt even a tenth as much as it had hurt her. She continued to keep her eyes closed and moved into the corner facing away this monster. Hopefully the creature would just stick her with a needle again and leave her alone. It seemed to enjoy grabbing her by the neck and causing her pain.

She heard the door slide open and felt the paws that were not paws reach under her. Strange that it did not have the gloves on this time as she noticed that the paw and five appendages were slender and furless. But she figured maybe it wanted to touch and feel her personally before the final moment. It had the paw under her touching her where no one should ever touch her, well no one she didn't want to touch her for sure. And she felt herself lifted out of the cage and moved over to the table where she was placed down. She heard more cursing and wondered why she had not been grabbed by the neck as was normal. This was the first time she had been removed from her cage and prepared herself for what she knew was to come. Resigned to her fate, she decided to look her tormentor in the face one last time and maybe at least get a bite in before the end. She was shaking and felt her nose quivering uncontrollably as she turned around and saw...

She saw two bright blues eyes staring at her with horror and sadness. She didn't think she had ever seen such sorrow and didn't even think these creatures could feel the emotion. At least maybe one of these creatures can actually feel sorry for killing her, or maybe the vision of her presence is so horrible to it. She thinks creatures plural since there definitely is more than one as this one is definitely different than the only one she had seen previously. She cringed as she felt the hairless paw-like thing touch her head. The thing that was different was that it barely touched her but instead gently grazed her head as it rubbed down her droopy ears and then continued down her back. If she didn't know any better she would think that the creature was trying to comfort her. Her shaking continued uncontrollable and she heard the creature say very softly, "Those motherfuckers really did a number on you."

She was thinking about why this creature would say this when she heard it say softly, "There, there little fella. It's okay. I won't hurt you." She then felt it put its arms around her gently. It was at this point she decided to turn around and give this creature a closer look. What she saw surprised her.

It was almost eye to eye with her as it had the side of its face down near her body. She saw that it did not wear a mask nor gloves as it apparently had taken these off. The face she saw was strange looking but not totally unpleasant. It had the same pale furless face with dark hair on top of its head. It had bright blue eyes but no real muzzle to speak of as its features were nearly flat on its face. It had a nose but it wasn't very big and a fairly small mouth with pinkish lips. She had never seen these creatures without a mask so she assumed that they all must have similar features. It has pale furless roundish ears on each side of its head. It was not looking at her at the moment, but instead seemed to be trying to warm her. She stopped shivering and it seemed to smile a bit and slowly get up looking down on her while continuing to keep its paw-like thing in contact with her rubbing her head and ears. It then brushed her side and she winced and cringed as she felt the pain from the cut and open wound. It seemed to notice this and she heard a whole lot of cussing.


	4. Visiting the Prisoner

Drew opened the door to the lab and quietly shut it behind him keeping the lights off. He felt the wall where he had believed the switches were located activating the lights and then intently stared in the direction where he had seen the shiny object and realized that what he had seen was a bowl. This bowl was in a cage. And in this cage he saw a fairly large furry animal with its head in the corner looking away from him. He looked closer and saw a large fluffy white tail coming out of the base of its rear and assumed this was a rabbit. Yes, this was a rabbit as he could see the ears hanging down flopped on its back. Quite large ears at that, and quite a large rabbit. Strange that it stayed facing away from him when he turned the light on. Perhaps it is dead. Oh God please don't let it be dead as well! But he noticed its sides were moving and it seemed to be breathing. Thank God! Let's get a closer look. He then attached the code kit to the inner door panel waiting for what seemed like forever for the door to unlock and then quickly moved inside.

The lab was filled with similar instruments he had seen in the other lab. His face grimaced in disgust viewing the operating area and the surgical instruments resulting in a bit of cursing. He moved over to the cage which was sitting on a white table and had a mesh bottom which was covered in cedar shavings. There was the bowl he had seen filled with green pellets and a water bottle in the corner. He tried to open the door to the cage but got pinched and shocked intensely. Ouch! He finally found a switch under the table to turn off the electricity and then fiddled with it a bit longer until he finally got it open. The rabbit continued to ignore him. It seemed to be significantly bigger than normal rabbits but appeared to be fairly lean. Perhaps it had been starved to near death.

There was also something really not quite right with its legs and body, but he ignored this and gently placed one hand underneath it and lifted it using his other hand to guide it out of the cage opening so that it did not hit its head against the door. He felt the animal quiver and it was shaking in terror but kept its eyes closed. He gently placed it down on the table next to the cage and as far from the operating area as possible.

Those horrid instruments instantly brought the image into his mind of the poor wretched gray animal cut open and dissected in the other lab. He was afraid he was going to vomit again as he felt the burn of the acid rising in his throat. He tried to calm the creature the best he could talking to it softly and gently petting its head. This did seem to calm it a bit but it was still shivering and he could see its pink nose quivering in fear. Drew carefully put its arms around the bunny and laid his head close as he kept rubbing it. This seemed to calm it down a bit until he began to rise and felt something out of place on its side and felt it cringe and inhale sharply. He glanced at the area he had brushed and saw the monstrous handiwork of the creature's captors. The fur on its side was matted and ragged and covered in blood and oozing puss. The fur had been cut off and the raw flesh was exposed and visible underneath. It was raw and jagged in multiple rows. Some appeared to be partially healed except for the oozing puss while other rows were in various states of freshness. It was at this point he began cursing like a sailor.

Drew then got up and searched the lab and found a first aid kit in the closet.

The rabbit seemed to be watching him with a strange expression. There were many things quite strange about all this. Drew had owned a pet rabbit in his youth and was very familiar with them, but had never seen one look at him like this one did. It was at this point he stopped cold with the kit in his hands and noticed that the rabbit had enormous violet eyes. Those massive eyes were also facing forward instead of on the side looked extremely hurt and sad, but they were still the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen in his life. What was most disconcerting was that they were incredibly expressive and you could almost tell what it was thinking just from its expression.

Rabbits don’t really show expression other than maybe fear or terror. At least none that he had seen. You could usually tell from their body language, breathing, heart rate or how they reacted to being held how they were feeling, but not from their expression. He realized at this point that this was no ordinary rabbit. He didn't know what experiments they had done to it, but it didn't deserve this even if it was some crazy genetic hybrid experiment.

The rabbit had not moved, but did seem a bit curious about what he was doing. He decided to talk to it to calm it down and the tone of his voice did seem to have a calming effect on it. He began to examine the wound and realized it had been open for quite awhile. It appeared that whoever created it, kept opening it and cutting more and more of the rabbit's flesh. Seeing the puss in the wound, he was very afraid it was extremely infected and it definitely needed antibiotics and stitching, but was wondering how he was going to do this quickly and without the rabbit panicking and hurting itself while he worked.

He decided he would try anyway and looked up what dosage and medications were needed and searched the lab trying to locate them. Luck would have it that they seemed to keep a full assortment of medications in the refrigerated glass cabinet. He found some Amoxicillin and Fentanyl and prepared a proper dose for the rabbit's estimated weight. He pocketed these and any other medications he saw that were on the list, and approached the rabbit with a pair of needles. He could see the terrified and panicked look on the rabbit's face which again was extremely disconcerting, but ignored this and told it he was giving it medications for pain and infection. If he didn't know better, this seemed to calm it down, but he was hoping his soothing voice was making it feel comfortable. He gave it a couple injections of Fentanyl around the wound area and then a round of Amoxicillin. The rabbit watched him with those enormous purple eyes and he almost blushed when it seemed to brighten and almost smile at him as the effects of the Fentanyl kicked in. Once he was sure it was properly numbed and feeling no pain he used some Anasept wound cleaner to clean the fur and wound areas and cut away a bit of fur in order to begin suturing the wound using dissolving stitching. He then reattached the fur to the skin using a similar technique. Once the work was done he placed an adhesive antibacterial gauze over the wound. He grabbed extras of all the items he had used and placed them in his coat pockets. He had been so focused on treating the wound that he had not looked at the rabbit. It seemed to have a dreamy smile on its face and was breathing slowly and calmly. Its nose was no longer quivering and its large gray ears had begun to move partially upright instead of flopping down its back.

Drew was now concerned about what other damage had been done to the bunny. He began to gently pet and felt it all over looking for any other damage. The rabbit looked a bit curiously at him but still had a bit of a dreamy expression as he felt its paws and large feet and then its arms and back legs. As he began to lift it up to examine it further the rabbit's expression and demeanor changed. He could swear the rabbit began to look angry and embarrassed. Drew told himself rabbits can't feel those emotions but this certainly appeared to be no ordinary bunny. When he put his hand underneath its chest the rabbit winced and backed away into the wall. Its expression looked very shocked and hurt. He didn’t feel anything wrong with its chest as there didn’t appear to be any cuts and the thick fur all seemed to be intact and normal.

He told the rabbit he was only concerned that it was wounded elsewhere and wanted to make sure it was okay. He guessed his voice seemed to calm it a bit but it still did not look happy. When he turned the rabbit on its back it got a wild look in its eye and put its paws down near the underside of its tail and attempted to curl up in a ball. Drew was now very concerned they had done something terrible to it down there and pulled its paws away and began to feel around the entire area near the base of its tail looking for anything out of the ordinary. He had to hold the rabbit in place with quite a great deal of force as the rabbit began to thrash violently and had a terrified, angry and he swore embarrassed look on its face. How a rabbit could do this was beyond him but it, no she, as the rabbit was most definitely female after his thorough examination, seemed to finally look relieved when he turned her back over and began pet her gently. He didn't find any wound or anything out of the ordinary and wondered why she had been behaving that way. Perhaps she had been shocked in the area and the damage wasn't visible. But there was no burn marks or discoloration on her fur or private area. He supposed there was nothing he could do about this at the moment.

Drew then figured out he needed to find a way to get her and himself out of there. It was then he noticed she wore a white collar like the animal he saw dissected was wearing. He swore under his breath as he figured this had a tracking device in it and didn’t see an easy way of removing it. The rabbit noticed him examining the collar and she opened her mouth to make a noise and then convulsed as if she was tasered. She then repeated this and pointed at the collar with her paws. Drew understood immediately that the collar was preventing her from making any noise and shocking her if she tried. He didn't understand this as rabbits generally don’t make any noise, at least not around humans. Well they don't normally make any noise unless they are injured, but as he had noticed many times this was no ordinary bunny.

She watched him very closely and seemed to be expecting him to say something to her. Drew said out loud to her, "Now how am I going to remove this thing?"

She got a quizzical look in her eyes and seemed to shrug her narrow shoulders. That’s when he stopped and stared at her with his mouth open looking like the dumbest yokel at a hillbilly gathering. He felt a cold chill run up his spine and had a sneaking inconceivable suspicion as hesitantly said to her, "You can understand me can't you?"

She looked at him and nodded her head enthusiastically. It was at this point all the blood left his brain and he fainted dead away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Authors Note: I thought I would add a note just to remind readers that might be upset by how the human protagonist dealt with Judy in this chapter that he treated her in a strictly clinical manner just as a veterinarian would treat any sick animal. I would like to make it clear that no deviant action was intended. The entire point was to have her treated like humans would treat any normal wounded rabbit or animal. Similarly she was treated in the same way as many experimental lab animals are treated every day by one of the human antagonists or monsters as they are known to Judy. Now how the protagonist treats her going forward is definitely open to interpretation so feel free to yell and scream if you feel it is so warranted.)


	5. When Drew Met Judy

When Drew came to after what he assumed was a couple minutes, the rabbit was standing on her back legs and looking over him with one ear over his heart and the other over his mouth. She appeared to be listening to what he could only assume was his breathing and his heart beating as there couldn't be any other explanation at this point. He raised his torso off the ground using his hands to push himself up so he was sitting on the floor. The rabbit saw him looking at her standing and got an embarrassed look on her face and put her paws over her lower body and crouched over.

He looked at her woozily and hesitantly asked, "You can stand?"

She nodded and he then asked her, "Are you embarrassed by something?"

She nodded and then grabbed the corner of his coat and draped it over herself. Drew looked at her quizzically, "But you are dressed in fur."

She got an annoyed and exasperated expression on her face and crawled under the lower portion of his coat and reached up and undid a couple of buttons and stuck her head through it. If he wasn't in complete shock he would have laughed his head off at this image, but he did chuckle under his breath. She did not appear to think this was funny. So he picked her up with her head still sticking out of the coat and walked over and grabbed a spare coat he had noticed when he was looking for the first aid kit and brought it over to the table. He sat the rabbit down on the table still standing on her back legs with her head sticking out the coat and proceeded to cut the new coat into a smaller size using some surgical knives. He then slid her out from under his coat and helped her put this smaller coat over herself and connected the back with some clamps so it fit snugly yet comfortably he hoped. He looked at her asking, "That better?"

She got a big smile on her face and nodded. Seeing that smile was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. He swore then and there to try and help this incredibly special rabbit, rabbit hybrid or whatever she was in any way he could or die trying.

It was at this point he got an idea. He was not sure why he didn't think of this earlier, probably due to the still in shock part. He looked at the rabbit and asked her, "Can you speak?"

She nodded enthusiastically and he followed, "The collar prevents you from speaking doesn't it?"

She got a sad look on her face and nodded. He then began to search around the room for some way to remove it. He asked her if she knew if there was a device anywhere which could remove it and she shrugged and then hopped down off the table and started looking in cabinets. He followed her lead looking in the high places while she looked in the lower ones. After several minutes he found something in a drawer that looked like exactly what was needed. She hopped back up on the table. He showed it to her and she got an excited look on her face and tapped her right foot rapidly on the table. He fit the device into the collar and pushed a button and the collar separated on one side and fell off of her.

She looked down at it and opened her mouth and said hoarsely, "I can't believe I finally have that fluffing thing off."

She coughed a bit and turned to Drew put her paws on her hips and exclaimed, "Could you not call me rabbit anymore. My name is Judith Hopps, my friends call me Judy."

She paused for moment as if considering something, "You may call me Judy. Now where in the blueberries am I?"

He looked at her still shocked by the fact that she was actually talking to him and kind of spaced out before finally shaking her extended paw responding, "My name is Drew Stevens. If I had any friends they would probably call me Drew. Sorry I don't have anything more imaginative than that, but you can call me Drew or whatever you like. In fact any talking rabbit can call me whatever they wish. To answer your question, you are in Research Facility 102 of the Cryodyne Corporation."

Judy looked at him quizzically, "I have never heard of that nor have I seen whatever kind of animal you are before. Do you live far from Zootopia or possibly underground?"

Drew looked at her amazed, "You've never seen a human before? I have never heard of this Zootopia but can't imagine many places around here that you would never have seen a human."

He then looked at her hesitantly explaining, "I assumed you were some kind of genetic experiment by the scientists here to create an intelligent bunny. But I gather from your questions that you come from a place without humans called Zootopia where there are..." He paused a bit and continued "… other bunnies like yourself?"

He looked at her expectantly with his eyes wide and eyebrows raised. Judy proceeded to tell him that she indeed came from a place called Zootopia where not only rabbits, but it seems all the mammals there were like herself in that they could speak, walk upright, wore clothes, and lived in a great city and other communities outside. The mammals there would go about there lives much as humans did in their cities with the exception that they had special habitats or sections to accommodate certain types of the mammals living needs and sizes. They also had amenities to handle mammals of all sizes. Finally she told him that the mammals there lived in relative peace and harmony both predator and prey. If he wasn't hearing this from a talking rabbit, he wouldn't have believed a word of it. Hearing all this coming from a talking bunny makes you accept a lot of things that are normally impossible to believe.

After a few seconds Drew informed Judy he had never heard of a talking animal of any kind other than maybe a few birds who could only mimic speech, and certainly nothing like Zootopia. He told her if anything like that existed, it would be plastered on every news outlet on Earth.

She thought about this, "Well that does not sound promising, but I suppose that is a mystery to solve. I guess the other question is what am I doing here and why have you humans been torturing me non-stop for weeks and weeks?"

She gave him a very angry look causing him to back up a bit and even feel frightened for a second. He then realized this bunny was not one to mess with. Her angry stare could make him feel guilty about things he didn't even do and confess to anything she wanted just to make it stop. He explained to her that all humans were not doing this to her, just the evil SOBs at Cryodyne. That he was a member of B.A.D. which stood for Badass Animal Defenders. He confided to her he knew it sounded corny but that it made an awesome acronym which sounded way better than P.E.T.A. which both sounded and acted quite wimpish. That he was assigned to find out what Cryodyne was doing, and bring back information relating to any animal abuse so we could leak this information on social media and news outlets, and hopefully have them shut it down. He then looked down a bit shamefully and told her he wasn't supposed to actually help any animals, just find the information. He then told her he was able to gain access to their information in the compartmentalized server and what he had found in the other laboratory which also contained a cage. He nearly retched as he glanced toward the area on the table meant for dissection. She followed his gaze and looked horrified when he told her about the creature cut open and dissected on the table.

"Humans are monsters!" She exclaimed in a hushed breath with her paws held over her mouth.

Drew thought about saying yeah you are right there lassie, but from the look on her face he realized any semblance of humor would be completely lost on her so he only responded, "Some are Judy, some are. Most humans are not that way. They may start wars, be racist, oppress others but most are basically good deep down."

She gave him a mistrustful look and he realized there would be a lot of work to do to change her mind, but it was going to take time and he had to get her as far away from this place as soon as possible.

It was at just that point that they heard a click and a monster walked into the room.


	6. Monster Mania

The monster was the creature in white as Judy called him. As the monster surveyed the scene in front of him his eyes went wide and his mouth stood open in shock as he saw Judy standing on the table in her makeshift lab coat. Those same eyes got seemingly impossibly wider as he turned and saw another human standing nearby.

"What the... " the monster exclaimed as Drew finally came out of his stupor and realized what was going on.

Now Drew was not a fighter, in fact he have never been in a fight in his life giving or taking. He was a computer guy and his idea of fighting was playing video games. So as he began to slowly move, Judy's reaction was immediate and instantaneous. She may have been tortured for weeks, lost the will to live, been close to madness, but she was still a rabbit and also a ZPD officer on top of that. Rabbits didn't get where they were by being slow to act, and Judy was no exception only as a ZPD officer she was trained to react toward danger rather than fleeing from it. Judy instinctively reached for her tranquilizer gun, taser, fox repellent or a combination of all three until she realized she had none of those things and would have to improvise.

She ran forward off the table and leapt feet first executing a move even Bruce Lee would have been proud of catching the monster full force in the head spinning him around and slamming him face first into the door frame. He let out a moan and slumped to the floor passed out cold.

Drew was still reacting to the fact he was even there, when he looked at Judy and then to crumpled mass on the floor. "Remind me not to piss you off." He remarked impressed.

She put her paws on her hips and puffed her chest out slightly uttering, "Hmph!" in a satisfied tone.

They both looked around the room for things with which to hogtie the monster. Judy told him this was a poor choice of words as she knew many pigs so he changed it to shit tie. She seemed to find this acceptable and they secured him as much as possible.

"What are we going to do with him?" He wondered out loud.

Judy grabbed a scalpel and with an expression on her face which said she had murder on her mind marched directly toward the slumped figure. Drew had no sympathy for the monster, but it did seem wrong to kill someone tied up and helpless regardless of how evil they were. But he did not suffer as Judy suffered. He did not want to die waiting helpless while being tortured nonstop. He would not stop her if he she wanted to kill this motherfucker, but knowing her the little he did, he didn't think this would really help her and may even harm her psychologically far worse.

So Drew called to her yelling, " **JUDY!** " Just as she was about to take a knife to the monster's throat.

The shout of her name made her pause and turn her head just briefly to look his way.

He continued quickly, "Rabbits aren't monsters are they?"

This stopped her right in her tracks and she gave him a blank stare and she answered defensively, "No of course **NOT**! " As she got a disgusted look on her face.

He then continued, "Then they wouldn't kill a defenseless creature no matter how heinous they were or what they did would they?"

She thought for a moment, "We would kill to save our lives or our families if it came to that, but we would avoid that course of action at all costs."

"But not defenseless." He responded as he glanced at the crumpled monster on the ground with Judy's knife pressed to its neck.

Judy then turned and looked down realizing now what she was about to do and dropped the scalpel and tears welled up in her eyes and she began to sob.

Now just as virtually all men are completely disarmed by a woman crying and have no clue what to do, Judy was no exception to this rule for Drew. But he did the only thing he could think to do and walked over to her, knelt down with his knees on the floor and hugged her gently petting her large ears that had flopped down behind her and let her cry into his shoulder. She sobbed for quite awhile and he didn't stop her until she finished as he sensed that after all that she had been through she needed this as much as she needed to breathe.

When she finally stopped, he pulled slightly away and gently kissed her on her forehead. She got an embarrassed look on her face and then hugged him tightly croaking, "Thanks.”

She didn't say what she was thanking him for but it didn't matter as he had to fight back the tears and croaked back, "Anytime."


	7. How Do Solve a Problem Like a Monster?

Once Judy had composed herself and appeared to be in better spirits, the topic of what they needed to do with the monster finally came up. Drew mentioned to Judy that it would have been easier to have killed him as they couldn't just leave him to be found and then inform the powers that be that a computer technician had stolen their prize bunny.

Judy suggested they could gag him and hide him in a closet, but Drew was afraid that once he is discovered missing, security would check everywhere for him. They need to make sure that if Simon was found, that he couldn’t tell them about what had happened to their lab specimen. While they are discussing their various options, their favorite torturer woke up groggily and finally opened his eyes only to see his torture target standing on two legs having a heated conversation with a young dark haired man in a white lab coat. He stared wide eyed and then started to make a gagging sound as they turned to look at him. He weakly raised his finger pointing at Judy and made a strange noise, and then his eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped down on the ground passed out cold.

"You know Judy, I am getting the feeling that he didn't know you were a walking talking bunny. In fact I believe those collars and those small cages were definitely used to make sure that he and none of the other lab techs had any clue about your real nature." Drew postulated.

Judy looked at Drew with her head cocked to one side and he could see she was deep in thought. "Another mystery." She finally stated, "But that doesn't excuse how this piece of carrot shavings treated me."

He held my hands up defensively, "I know, I know, I never said that. Piece of carrot shavings... is that the best word you could come up for him? I can think of a lot more colorful things."

She ignored the comment, "I don't want to leave him here to get away with what he has done so he can do this to other animals, but I also know we can't kill him."

After a bit of thought Drew’s face brightened and he asked Judy to make a list of charges the monster was guilty of, "Judy we can't call him the monster on the report as that name could apply to a whole lot of people, in fact most all of the humans working in this entire section.”

He dug into the monster's pocket until he found an ID badge and held it up to Judy. "There we go. The monster in question is known as Simon Filcher." He said with a grin pocketing the ID as he knew that you never knew what might come in handy getting out of this place.

Judy scanned the tables and quickly located one of the notepads and grabbed a pen from a nearby table and began to furiously write down a whole list of charges this Simon was guilty of. In the meantime Drew grabbed his reference pad and began to search for drugs, and checked the refrigerated glass cabinet for anything that looked promising.

As Judy finished the second page of charges, he got a smile and yelled, "Eureka!" He then grabbed a drug and measured an injection into a syringe and then crushed up a pill and mixed it into a small cup of water. He then began to feed the cup of liquid with the crushed pill to their buddy Simon helping him swallow the entire contents and then injected him with the second drug. Judy looked at Drew suspiciously asking what he was doing. He informed her he gave Simon a strong dose of both Ketamine and Rohypnol.

“It sounds like you are speaking a foreign language.” Judy stated with frustration in her voice.

Drew explained both these drugs caused amnesia and that Simon wouldn’t be telling anyone anything about them for quite awhile if ever.

He could see she had a dubious look of _I just spared this joker's life and now you are killing him._ He let her know that he only meant that Simon might not ever remember exactly what happened here.

They noticed all the samples and vials spread all over the lab, and they gathered these all up as well as the white collar and stuck them down the hazardous waste chute for burn disposal. Drew then wiped any data concerning Judy from the equipment in the room and keep some of her fur that had been cut off and left it sticking out of the corner of the hazardous waste chute. They both pulled Simon up into the chair and placed him slumped over the keyboard.

Drew wished he could have taken credit for this plan, but Judy was the brilliant mind who came up with this whole scheme. Judy explained to him that anyone walking by would just see Simon working on the computer. Anyone entering will assume Simon tossed all the samples and her body down the hazardous waste chute for destruction and erased all data concerning her presence.

"Judy, you have a beautiful brilliant devious mind. I don't know if this will work, but I think it may buy us a good chunk of time. Now if we can only get out of this place without being caught." Drew expressed his awe at the imaginative mind of his new bunny acquaintance.

Judy handed him three pages of charges with Simon Filcher's name at the top. She looked at him holding her paws flared at her outfit explaining, "No pockets."

So Drew folded the list up and slipped it into the case with his portable SSD drive. He got a thoughtful look and gave her a mischievous smile, "You know if we ever find this Zootopia of yours I have some interesting ideas on some fitting justice we can hand out to old Simon here."

Inside his head he was doing the Dr. Evil laugh while daydreaming of possible just desserts for this douche-bag.

 


	8. A Red Hot Rabbit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh Oh. Drew is in hot water. Good thing Judy isn’t currently armed with fox repellent or a taser.

Drew then turned to Judy and saw she has something weighing heavy on her mind. He attempted to distract her, "Are you ready to hear my plan to get out this place?"

She looked up from her contemplation and sighed, "Yes I most definitely am, but before we do I feel I must address something that has been bothering me greatly before it eats me up.”

She has a look on her face that he can tell means trouble. He realizes that she is the kind of person that will not let go of something until it is finally resolved. This is what must make her the greatest cop Zootopia has ever seen as once she was on the trail of a criminal she would stay focused until her quarry was captured. But now those eyes were on the human and he knew that look. He had seen that look far too often for his own good. It was the look that says he had fucked up somewhere and he better take his medicine and get it over. He hesitantly told her to please get whatever it was off her chest so they could go. He continued, “We only have a little over an hour before I am scheduled to leave the facility, and these guys are sticklers when it comes to coming and going.”

Judy sighs and then looks at him sadly, "You know you really hurt me groping me all over in places no one should be groped, not even just once but **multiple** times. I have **never** had anyone touch me there since I was a baby bunny, and well it is hard to deal with as I want to like you for everything you have done, but I don't know if I can get over what you did to me."

Judy looks down sadly appearing very hurt. Drew got a lump in his throat and his heart been to break as he quickly tried to explain that initially he only wanted to pick her up so that he could get her out of the cage door without hurting her. He didn’t really think of where he had his hand at the time as was only thinking about getting her out of that cage as quickly as possible.

She nodded, "I can understand that but the other times really... made me so uncomfortable. I wanted to die."

Drew felt his heart drop down below his feet and he could tell she seemed incredibly distraught. With all that had been going on, he had forgotten that it had even happened. When a rabbit starts talking to you, you kind of forget the part before they started talking. He thought back to what he had done and got a horrified "Oh No!" expression on his face as his mind started to recall what had happened. He tried to explain that he had just seen her entire side torn up, infected and exposed, and was horrified by what had been done to her. He was so thrilled he had been able to successfully patch her up but had then misread her expressions and body language believing that she was greatly injured in the region below her tail and he had only wanted to make sure nothing had been done to her. The more Judy had struggled, the more he had become convinced that she had been harmed and he was desperate to make sure she was okay and try and treat her the best he knew how immediately. She looked down thinking about this for awhile and finally admitted, "You know I believe this Simon, this monster in white, just might have actually done what you were afraid of if he had thought of it."

Drew looked at Judy with the sorriest most apologetic face he could possible muster. This wasn't too hard because he felt much worse than any face he could possibly make and apologized profusely and hoped she understood that he didn't mean any harm or injury to her and it didn't mean anything to him.

She got a bit of an angry scowl on her face, "It didn't **MEAN** anything?"

Uh oh. He realized his mistake. Open mouth, insert foot. He tried to backtrack and let her know that he meant he wasn't trying to get a look at her goods. He only wanted to, well make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be.

She gave him a look that said she was considering what he was saying and he then made the mistake he always made with all girls. He decided to press his luck thinking that he needed more. It was as if he was playing Blackjack holding 20 and was asking to be hit with another card as he began to babble about having a pet rabbit and just unconsciously treated her like he would a pet and as he continued on explaining he saw the look in her eyes go from thoughtful consideration to red hot anger.

"You kept a rabbit **enslaved** in a **CAGE** it's **whole life**!"

Uh oh, his argument for humans aren't monsters took a massive blow. If his defense of humans was a boxer, it had just gotten kicked square in the nuts and had doubled over in agony.

Well the good news was that Judy wasn't so angry about being unintentionally sexually assaulted. The bad news is she thought Drew was a combination slaver, kidnapper and all around scumbag or as she would politely put it... a giant fur brained idiot. He thought to himself that this would not be a good time to tell her about another use of rabbits in the human world as food. He shuddered to think how she would respond to this. He had been about to blurt out "well at least my pet was not eaten by humans" but luckily this time he had enough sense to push this thought down and respond that humans keep all sorts of animals as pets not just rabbits. That they didn't ever think of them as slaves, well maybe the people that fight pit bulls do, but the rest of the humans don't see the animals as slaves but as companions. They showered them with love and affection and tried to make their lives as happy as possible. Well most humans do, but he didn't mention that part as she was already painting all humans with a pretty ugly black brush at the moment.

She looked at him dejectedly, "Well it seems there is a lot about humans I don't know and as I learn more and more I am not sure I really want to know more." She paused and continued, "But in order to survive this place right now I am going to have to learn all I can. I hope you can honestly teach me all you know both good and bad so I can make the proper judgment and respond the best way I can to protect myself from these humans on my own."

Judy's phrase "On my own" hit Drew pretty hard but he knew that she was hurt right now and he would have to prove himself, and try and redeem what had been lost. It was at this point he remembered something she had said early and hadn't picked up on initially because he was busy fending off the bat with which this innocent looking bunny had been metaphysically pounding the crap out of him.

He turned to her and tried to change the subject which was his usual go to whenever he inevitably screwed up with females of all species now it seems, "Judy you said you had **never** been touched. Don't you have a boyfriend? What about your friend Nick? I can't believe a cute bunny like you would not have anyone to umm well to..."

Thankfully Judy interrupted him and he didn't have to awkwardly say anything else, "First of all please don't call me cute. A bunny can call another bunny cute but when other animals do it…"

"Hmmmm…. " He said understanding, "you feel it patronizes you?"

She nods.

"What if it is only meant as a compliment or a term of affection?" He wondered.

Judy responded, "It still is a bit uncomfortable even though I know you only meant it in a positive way."

Drew gave her a smile, “Adorable."

Judy looked at him confused and he asked what if I used the term adorable instead. She gave him a slight smile, "I suppose I can accept that.".

It gave him a great feeling to finally see a bit of smile after the brutal interrogation of the last few minutes.

Judy continued, "No I don't have a boyfriend and Nick is my best friend, but I don't think of him that way. I love him greatly but well... not like that." Judy seemed lost in thought as she remembered that the last time she had thought of Nick, he was slicing into her preparing to eat her and promising to eat her parents as well. She shook her head and reminded herself that hopefully the nightmare was over and she could bury that image of Nick so deep in a hole it would never be seen even at the end of time. She then heard Drew asking if they allowed cross species dating in Zootopia or if it was taboo. Judy paused and explained that it is not exactly taboo, but is was not exactly commonplace either. He asked her if she is happy with her current relationship with Nick or if she wanted to explore a more intimate type of relationship with her partner.

Judy didn't have to think long as she quickly responded, "I love the relationship we have now and would not risk changing a thing. I have seen relationships, even just experimental or temporary, mess up friendships and partnerships in the police and other workplace environments. They can unnecessarily complicate things and it is hard enough keeping a focus on the dangerous work we do as it is without other factors causing a loss of total focus. Besides it is against regulations and could result in suspensions and moving us to different precincts."

Drew thought to himself a very logical and well thought out answer but he admitted, "It sounds very lonely."

Judy shook her head, "It is. But I see what you have done distracting me from the multiple reasons I am mad at you in the first place. I was wondering why you were asking me such questions."

Drew smiled teasing her by putting my hands up in surrender, "Guilty as charged officer. Sometimes the old faithfuls are the best ammunition you have."

She laughed a bit and said thankfully, "You know you are hard to stay mad at. Nick could learn a thing or two about that as he can be as stubborn as I am sometimes when he refuses to agree with me."

"How dare he have a different opinion!" Drew said with a smile.

Judy laughed, "Now you get me!"


	9. Mission Get the Heck Out of Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now how about we get out of this damn torture house. Sounds like a good idea to me.

"Judy, how about we get the hell out of here now." Drew queried hopefully.

Judy responded with an enthusiastic nod, "That sounds great, now tell me about this plan of yours."

He got an uncomfortable expression on his face and admitted tentatively, "Well it sounded better before our discussion of the past few minutes. I think it is a solid plan, but you are not going to like it."

Judy gave him a cautious look, "If it will get me out of this living heckscape, I’m all for it."

"I wish I had a recording of that to play back to you after I tell you the details." Drew said with a bit of a wince.

"Just pull it off fast like a band-aid." She boldly responded and Drew proceeded to tell her the details of his plan.

"You want me to do **WHAT**!" Judy exclaimed shortly after he explained what was needed.

"I don't see any safer way to get you out." He protested.

Judy thumped her foot a few times thinking furiously and then finally sighed, "I don't have anything either."

"I can't put you in a box as they inspect and x-ray all packages, backpacks, briefcases, essentially anything not **ON** your person. You only have to go through the metal detector yourself, but it doesn’t x-ray you. It only checks for any metal objects. There is a risk of a possible pat down but the chances are remote."

"You want me to strap myself to your chest and ride you to your office so that you can pick up your backpack and some clothes and straps to attach me to your front? Why can't I hang onto your back?" Judy inquired hopefully.

Drew explained, "You could, but I have no way of supporting you if you slip, and you could have trouble breathing under my coat. It will also be difficult hanging on as you will tire. If you are on my front I can keep my hands near my waist to support your feet and to catch you if you should slip."

"Why can't I at least wear my lab coat until you get to your office?" Judy challenged.

He picked her up and put her under his coat and walked a few feet across the room. "You hear that?" He asked.

She got an annoyed look on her face, "Who do you think you're talking to? I heard that like a rumbling train."

Drew explained, "It is the nylon rubbing the nylon that makes the sound. We need something soft like cotton or say fur that will be silent."

She reached up under his coat and began to touch his soft shirt cocking her head inquisitively at him.

"Won't work, I need to wear the shirt, and you need to get under the shirt in order to be held secure. I can tuck my shirt in and tighten my belt creating a little cocoon that can partially support you under the shirt. I have a cotton shirt in my office I can use for you as soon as we get there, but there is not a lot in here I can use."

Judy looks around the room and then looks Drew over carefully and pulls the waistband of his undershorts and glances up at him with a bit of an evil grin.

"Judy for you I will do anything to make up for unintentionally _touching_ you, but I know you bunnies have quite sensitive noses, and I am not sure you may like being dressed in that." He responded tentatively.

"I still don't see the hangup you bunnies have with being unclothed" He said carefully to her. "You are wearing a full fur coat."

She gave him an annoyed look, "I have had enough nakedness for a lifetime. You ask me why. You might as well ask me why the sky is blue or why water is wet. Why do humans wear clothes?"

Well he did have an explanation for that, actually several, but he went with the easiest and most obvious, "Because we don't have fur."

Judy became a bit exasperated until she looking down and absently played with his shoe as she had explained that they didn’t use those in Zootopia and she seemed fascinated with them until she noticed he had something attached to his feet and began to pull on it getting a big smile and looked up at him.

That’s when Drew’s socks became the new fashion statement on the Zootopia runway. He took off his shoes and then socks and handed them to her as she hid behind a table and began a makeshift change into his socks.

"Sorry for a bit of smell in advance." He called to her. "Sneaking around the top secret halls of a dangerous corporation can be detrimental to your hygiene, but it is only in the toes."

She ignored his comment as she struggled pulling the sock up to cover herself. But it only came up to the top of her leg which she stuck out the side to demonstrate. She had some pretty big feet. He got an idea and found a knife and cut the bottom of the other sock off and stretched it as wide as he could and tossed it back to her.

She looked at his new offering, "Thanks."

Drew could tell she had more success putting this on. She tossed him the previous sock and slowly came out waddling a bit as the sock was still pretty snug. She looked a bit like she was inside the outer skin of a hot dog. He didn’t mention this to her because he hated to think of what she would say if she knew humans ate those. He then got a full view of her and began to grin and tried not to laugh, but didn't do a good job. She scowled.

He admitted, "You look like a weasel."

Judy got a very hurt look on her face and he quickly retracted his previous statement, "Oh no sorry I was mistaken, not a weasel. You look adorable."

She got a big grin and allowed him to pick her up and carefully put her under his shirt. She began to squirm and he exclaimed, "Hey that tickles!"

She responded with some muffled giggling. He didn't have any real straps to secure her as well as he wanted, but he did use what remained of some medical tape to wrap around his back and Judy's front. Once he was satisfied that she was as secure as he could make her given the resources available, he opened the two doors to exit the lab and headed down the hall with a bit of a bulge around his chest, but fortunately the lab coat covered most of this.

Drew walked purposefully without a care in the world as he knew from his B.A.D. training that if you act like you know where you are going and looked confident and determined no one would even give you a second glance. If you skulk around the shadows you will gain everyone's attention. So he walked purposely and fairly rapidly in the direction where he knew the exit of the wing to be from looking at the floor diagrams earlier. He could feel Judy's ear twitch under his shirt and heard her whisper barely audibly, "I hear three... humans... ahead 30 meters."

As he rounded the bend and paced the steps, sure enough there were three lab techs in lab coats without gloves or masks on chatting with each other and barely acknowledging his presence as he quickly stepped past them. He had donned a mask and gloves to reduce the chance of anyone recognizing him. He figured that wearing the mask in the hall even though no one else was wearing them was a preferable risk to having someone recognize him.

He felt Judy's ears twitch and heard the soft whisper of the Rabbit Radar, "Two in 15 meters, four more in 25."

He thought to himself Rabbit Radar could be used by the military it was so accurate as sure enough two female techs in lab coats were spotted chatting mindlessly followed briefly by what appeared to be an administrator escorting some VIPs through the hall. Drew began to sweat a bit as he knew that the administrator would recognize him as he had seen him in Drew’s assigned section several times. As he passed by, the VIPs glanced up at him and he deftly turned his head as he passed so the only view the administrator had was of the side of his head. The administrator seemed to ignore him completely and went back to his tour, "And here is our new lab analysis facility where we are producing several new enzymes and experimental sequences you have read about in the literature."

The VIPs seem to nod excitedly and talked among themselves in low tones Drew could not make out while the administrator continued to lead them down the hall toward the lab area from which Judy and he had just come. This gave him some pause as he considered the possibility that the administrator might decide to extend his tour to include their buddy Simon. He hoped that the VIPs were not cleared to see any ‘special’ animals. Judy sensed his unease immediately and whispered encouragement. He then realized how remarkable she was at sensing the slightest changes in his breathing, smell, degree of fear, or numerous other very subtle bodily clues. She could possibly be a living lie detector that could detect any of those changes as well as sensing any hormonal changes that would indicate someone was lying if her abilities were so applied. He would have to remember this the next time he had to tell her anything that wasn't exactly the truth.

He came out of his apparent distraction as he realized he was approaching the main door out of the secure zone and into the rest of the facility. Judy mentioned two guards at the door, but he already knew they would be there. This was the part of the plan that depended on timing. Here is where he hung out waiting for the next part of his plan. He pulled out his tablet and began to read whatever he had on it mindlessly looking very engrossed. After a couple minutes Judy mentioned three people coming up the hall talking. Sure enough a minute later a group of two male lab techs and a female were walking together down the hall toward the exit chatting about getting off work for the evening. As they passed by, he seamlessly moved in step with them keeping his head down engrossed in his tablet, but actually he was watching their shoes and keeping exact pace with the rest of them. A couple of them nodded to the two security guards and one waved. He gave the guards the same slight nod as he passed and continued up the hall until he came to the side hall which led to his office.

Drew was very surprised that Judy had remained so calm the entire time. He imagined her ZPD training must have kicked in and she was in undercover cop mode cool as a cucumber. She was quite warm and soft and not unpleasant to have pressed up against him. If he hadn’t been scared out of his mind, he might have actually enjoyed this. He finally arrived at his office and Judy sensed they had arrived at their destination as some large ears and head with beautiful massive purple eyes suddenly popped up and stared into the human’s face less than two centimeters away. She had a huge smile on her face. He couldn’t help but smile back even though he was quite terrified.

He whispered to her to get down as she might be seen. The head immediately popped back down and he bent down behind his desk and allowed Judy to crawl out. He quickly found the items he needed, a couple luggage straps and a white cotton shirt with the image of a bunch of animals and a big heart. He was sure Phil would have yelled at him if he knew he had brought a t-shirt like this, but hell it wasn't like it said _screw Cryodyne and their animal torture team_. He got a gleeful vision of wearing such a t-shirt and walking down the halls waving at everyone. The brief fantasy cleared from his head, he helped pull the shirt over Judy's head, careful not to bend her ears as he fit them through the neck hole of the shirt. Judy pushed the sock thing down her body and he slid the now ruined sock onto his foot so it matched the other one. You never knew what security guards will notice, but luckily they could not see that the sock was ruined. Only the toes of his right foot knew about that. He put some large rubber bands over Judy's head and cinched them around her waist so the shirt wouldn’t accidentally slide off her. It would be a bit hard to explain if a t-shirt plopped out in front of him as he tried to get through the final checkpoint, especially with what was written on this particular t-shirt. He doubted that the security guards and most of the people working at this facility had any clue what was really happening in that secret section of the building, but there was no sense in risking anything. Here is where he whispered to Judy to make sure she didn't have any metal on her. She stared at him strangely.

“You know metal… rings, piercings, etc.”

She gave him a bit of a stern look, "I think you checked every bit of me quite thoroughly. I think you would have noticed any metal."

Drew realizes he had foot in mouth disease again and just nodded looking slightly flushed from embarrassment, "Uh-huh."

He attached two straps with plastic fasteners around his chest with the clips in front. He placed his portable drive, tablet and ‘special’ toolkit into a compartment of his backpack specially shielded and designed just to fit these tiny devices and give innocuous readings as it went through any security scanner.

He packed everything he didn’t want left behind in his backpack and laid it on the table. Even though he did daily wipes, he performed a final full history wipe of any evidence he had ever done anything on these computer systems, and glanced at his computer and noticed he was supposed to leave in ten minutes. He had cut this whole thing super close and wanted to get out of the building immediately before the crowds formed to reduce the risk of something being noticed by someone as they attempted to exit the facility.

He motioned to Judy he was ready for Phase II of their exit plan as he lifted his shirt up over his shoulders and gently grabbed her by her hips and lifting her up and placing her on his bare chest. Judy patiently pressed herself against him with her head just below his sternum, and he unfastened the straps and connected them around her so one of them was just under her armpits with her arms hanging over top of it. He then put the other strap around the upper part of her lower legs which were slightly bent and hanging down. He then made sure the straps were tight, but not uncomfortable for her and lowered his shirt and the t-shirt she was wearing and tucked them both into his pants. He could feel the top of Judy's feet resting on his belt which he had cinched up almost to the point that it was painful. The final step was to push Judy's ears down so they laid flat on her back and didn’t show through the neck hole. If he looked straight down he could see her looking up at him. He tried to give her an encouraging smile and told her it would be just a few minutes. He informed her to make sure to keep down when she heard anybody because he would hate to have to explain how he had a chest full of luscious prematurely gray hair. She giggled and poked him in his stomach near his bellybutton.

The brief moment of levity improved his mood slightly. He wrapped his jacket and then his backpack around his shoulders and confidently strode out to take on Cryodyne’s finest and make them appear incompetent fools. If he had known what he was going to face in just a few minutes and he would have walked the opposite direction and taken his chances fleeing out the back fire exit.

He walked around 15 meters to the elevators and stepped inside and pressed ‘1’ on the panel. Fortunately no one else was currently in the elevator, but when they got to the second level, the doors opened up and a group of secretaries and some accountants all crammed into the elevator pushing him all the way into the back. He could hear Judy grunt a bit as she was squashed against his chest and he sucked in his abdomen and moved partly to the side to try and give her just a small bit more room so she wouldn't suffocate.

What must it feel like to be this poor rabbit surrounded on all sides by hundreds of her potential tormentors and not another friendly fellow animal in sight. Living in this Zootopia, she must be used to constantly being surrounded by fellow animals. She had been here almost three weeks according to the computer records he had glanced at before backing up and wiping all data collected during her period of captivity. He had been tempted to just delete everything but Judy had stopped him remarking it was "another mystery" as to what they had wanted with her, and the only way to have a chance to find this out was to examine the data they had collected during her stay in Casa Del Cryodyne.

The elevator finally opened and the mass of humanity spilled out into the hall. The resulting cacophony consisted of voices, the jostling of various work and personal devices, marching shoes and the inane yammering of general small-talk. Everyone had their card out for scanning, and Drew reached into his pocket for his ID. He had put the lab coat, mask, gloves, and Simon's ID card into his backpack and hoped they found no reason to search it. He had to take any evidence of his subterfuge out with him to prevent any possible discovery as he didn’t have access to any disposal options that would remove any potential DNA evidence.

He heard Judy's heart quicken as the sounds became more intense and raucous. He couldn’t imagine how harrowing all the noise must be to someone with Judy's acute hearing. It was giving him a headache and he had average human hearing at best. As her heart rate sped up even more, he whispered some encouragement to her so low only she could hear. Her heartbeat and breathing slowed a bit and he moved into one of the security lines. He selected the one with the old cranky guard. On the surface it would seem this was a poor choice, but if you realize that this guy only wanted to get off work and get the hell out of there while guards Bipsy and Bopsy as he had nicknamed them, acted like they had been waiting their entire lives to stop a terrorist plot and were ready to spring into action at a moments notice. Yes give him Mr. Cranky Pants any day.

The line he was in was moving fairly quickly, faster than the other two lines when he felt something near his stomach move and convulse. He instinctively grabbed his abdomen when he realized that Judy was there and cursed himself for daydreaming and losing focus. He then felt her convulse a few more times and she began shaking. He started sweating and whispered to her asking if she was all right. He didn’t hear anything and became very worried. He was the next one to go through the detector, but he didn’t dare go through when she would most likely convulse and possibly reveal her presence. He also realized that everything would be for naught if anything happened to her so he backed up and excused himself pretending to slightly retch a bit holding a fist up to his mouth and convulsing. He heard curses from behind him, but his path soon cleared quite quickly as people got out of his way as they noticed his actions. An interesting observation, people will get out of the way of someone vomiting or looking like they might vomit as if their lives depended it on it.

He wondered absently if this applied to mammals in Zootopia as well when he remembered Judy again and heard a low moan coming from inside his jacket. He made it into the men’s restroom and fortunately found a large open stall on the far end entering it and hurriedly closing and locking the door. Judy then made a horrid sick sound like nothing he had ever expected could possibly come from her mouth. It sounded like something he imagined a suffering dying moose might make.

Someone in the stall next to him knocked on the wall scaring him to death, "Hey are you alright in there dude?"

He answered back in his best imitation of the sound he had just heard coming out of Judy's mouth, "Yeah man... I'm okay... just a touch of this stomach flu going around I guess."

He then didn’t hear anything else from his neighbor. Another observation, if you want people who you don't know to leave you alone, talk about the stomach flu.

He managed to lift his shirt, undo the straps and cradle Judy as she breathed shallowly and felt hot to the touch. He then cursed as he remembered the infection she had. He thought the injection he had given her earlier would be enough, but apparently it was far worse than he had anticipated and she was delirious and in real trouble. If this had been any other situation, he would have rushed her at top speed to the nearest veterinarian without a moments hesitation. However this was no ordinary situation and she was certainly no ordinary animal which was obviously evident by her delirious ramblings. He couldn't make out most of what she was saying except words like Nick and Bogo. He then heard her say, "Noooo not my parents. Please. I will do anything" followed immediately by more incoherent mumbling.

He knew he had to do something about this infection before anything else, or she wouldn't even make it to the safety of his motel alive. The thought of this made him feel sick, even sicker than Judy was now and that was saying something. Drew remembered the medications he had stowed and pulled the white lab coat out of his backpack and found the Amoxicillin vial and a syringe after some frantic searching and nearly dropped the vial on the floor. He swore to himself when he realized his clumsiness had almost doomed his new bunny friend. He knew with absolute certainty that this little gray creature with giant purple eyes would be ten times the friend of any human he had ever met. The only problem was she was near death, and if he didn't stop this infection, she would be dead for certain in less than an hour for she was fairly small and her body was far too weak from almost a month of the abuse and torture she had somehow endured. Who knows how long the infection had been festering. She was burning up, and he didn’t know of a way to cool her down. But he thought of an idea. First he found a syringe and prepared a double dose of Amoxicillin and gave her an injection in the fleshy part of her leg. She weakly reached toward the injection spot with one paw and began mumbling again under her breath.

He put the items back into his backpack and slung it and his jacket over his back and slid Judy back under his shirt cradling her with one free arm as he headed toward the cafeteria on the far side of the first floor. He finally found what he needed, a large ice machine. He slid the doors open and removed his jacket and laid it on top of the ice and then placed Judy on top of the jacket and closed the doors to the ice machine. He listened inside, but only heard the faint whirring of the ice dispenser dropping new blocks of ice out on the side. He didn’t know how long to keep her inside, but began to check on her every couple minutes evaluating her temperature and breathing. She curled up in a ball on her side and appeared to fall asleep. A few times people came over with cups to fill up with ice, but upon seeing Drew appearing quite ill leaning over the ice machine changed their minds rather quickly. He imagined they reconsidered their need for a cold drink.

He finally checked on Judy after a few more minutes and didn’t hear anything. He listened closely to her mouth and heard that her breathing seemed to have improved quite a lot and she felt cool to the touch. He picked her up and carefully put her back under his shirt. She laid her head next to his chest and seemed to calmly sleep. He wondered if he dared risk exiting the building with her in a state that could change at any time. But at this point, it was getting late and he would have to risk it. He returned to the restroom and put the straps around her gently so that if he didn’t move too quickly she would stay in place even if his hands were free. He headed back to the exit and was very dismayed to see Mr. Cranky Pants had already left and only Bibsy and Bopsy remained. He cursed his luck and just got in the shorter line as one was no better than the other.

Unfortunately he noticed that today appeared to be ‘practice frisking and interrogate the employees’ day. He began to sweat and felt Judy shift underneath him probably reacting to his increased discomfort. He placed his backpack on the security conveyor and closed his eyes, praying as he slowly walked through the metal detector. He felt relief as he seemed to make it through without any incident and gathered the backpack and slung it over his shoulder and was halfway to the exit door when he felt a firm hand on his shoulder and heard the worst words he thought he had ever heard in his life up to that point.

"Random security check."

It was Bopsy or was it Bipsy. What the fuck did it matter as he was screwed and Judy would soon to dead.


	10. Dead Rabbit Walking

Drew considered just sprinting at this point as it was only five meters to the exit doors. But he realized he was carrying a nearly dead rabbit and luggage and he was no athlete. Not even close. He decided to give his stomach flu acting a try as it had seemed to work on everyone else quite well.

It didn't work on Bopsy. Yes definitely Bopsy. The guard chastised him, "Sir you shouldn't come to work if you are in that condition. It is not fair to the other workers and is a health hazard."

Apparently Bopsy was not personally scared of such a health hazard, because Drew had turned and coughed on him mimicking retching. He was desperate at this point. He must have actually looked quite sick as he was worried to death about Judy's health. He croaked out that he was fine earlier but it had come on that afternoon. He had turned very pale. He must have looked on death’s door but he actually had that pallor from fright. Fear for his and Judy's life. Hard ass Bopsy then resumed pulling him back to the pat down area and right as he leaned down to start to pat down his sides Judy used this moment to gag and vomit. She had stuck her head out the top of his shirt and turn to the side vomiting dark green what he assumed were digested pellets all over his shoulder and Bopsy's head. She made an "URP!" sound just as he was able to frantically push her head back down his shirt and bend over slightly so the bulge in the front of his chest was not so obvious.

Drew spit green goo that had actually gotten into my mouth when Judy spewed forth and Bopsy put his hand up to his head coming away with green goo dripping down his face and shoulders. Apparently Mr. Hardasses breaking point was finally discovered as the guard tried to stop himself from retching putting his palm up to his mouth and grabbed Drew by the shoulders and pushed him toward the exit. Drew wondered if he was going to come after him once he got to the doors as the guard certainly must have spotted Judy and was going to revel in tackling the fraud to the floor and then diving on him with a flying elbow to the head. Drew waited but apparently the guard had headed toward the restroom and the way appeared clear so he slowly walked his way out the doors and into a cool night with the most beautiful breeze he thought he had ever felt in his life.

He didn't waste any time making it to his car, easing himself in so as not to squash Judy into the steering column. He lifted up his puked over shirt. His glorious life saving puke-ridden shirt and undid the straps and carefully placed the little gray bundle into the passenger seat which promptly curled up into a ball. He carefully drove to his temporary residence hotel room. He left Judy in the car and quickly packed everything left in the room in a few minutes and stuffed the trunk. He stopped by the front desk and checked out early. They said the rest of the week was not refundable and he told them it was fine. It was time to burn Mr. Gonzales to the ground and use his backup alias to become Fox Pander. He chuckled to himself thinking Judy would get a kick out of this name and it wasn't even planned, just a happy coincidence. He stopped by an Avis rental kiosk and rented a Chevy Suburban and moved everything out of the old vehicle and into the new. He wanted a tinted SVU so that Judy could sit up and not be seen by other drivers. He carefully moved Judy into the passenger seat of the SUV and locked the doors. He drove the car in Gonzales' name to a nearby nearly empty grocery parking lot and hoofed it back to the SUV. He got in and made sure Judy was breathing okay. She seemed to be resting peacefully. The green puke that saved her life seemed to agree with her as she had a little smile on face even though she was covered in dried green vomit.

He found a good motel twenty kilometers away that B.A.D. had used before because it was clean, had good wifi and internet, and most importantly took cash and didn't ask any questions. He was able to get a room in a back corner where no nosy neighbors would be able to see any packages that might be delivered to the room unless they were standing in the street directly behind the vehicle. He parked and unloaded the car and grabbed a reasonably soft towel from the bathroom and returned to the car and covered Judy with it and carried her into the room and placed her on top of the second bed.

Keeping the towel over her he pulled the puke stained shirt off her and pulled the sheets back and covered her with a sheet and a thin blanket. She seemed to squirm a bit to get comfortable. He took another towel and dampened it with some warm water and a small dab of hand soap and tried to clean the puke off Judy's face and neck as best he could. As he cleaned her she waved her paw a bit in protest but finally he finished and dried the area the best he could with the other half of the towel. It was at this point he noticed that she really did smell. Thinking of how he would smell stuck in a cage with his own excrement for weeks tortured and sliced and diced, he figured she smelled quite good considering, but definitely needed a good bath. But after all the trouble he had gotten into, she was going to have to handle that herself after she woke up.

He then made a list of things he was doing to need and left Judy a note next to her in case she woke up before he returned. He also gave her a burner phone with his number preprogrammed in it as well as in the note he had left. He regretted leaving her in this state but it couldn't be helped. There was so much he needed to do so he gave her another injection of Amoxicillin near the wound and left making sure the door was securely locked and all the curtains drawn. There was a lot of shopping to do and only a couple hours before the stores would be closed.


	11. The Story of the Fox and the Buffalo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally we find out what our furry red friend has been up to.

A fox strode through a police station wearing a pair of reflective sunglasses and lifting them up with his right paw from time to time to acknowledge a few of the residents that passed by. It really made no sense to be wearing sunglasses indoors but the fox believed cool trumped practicality every time. This fox seemed quite at ease being in a police station which was quite unusual as most foxes would avoid the place like the plague. He seemed to whistle and point a digit of his paw at mammals he recognized uttering some phrases from time to time like "Looking good, Phil","Did you lose some weight Francine?","Did you see the game the other night? Fantastic!"

If you didn't know any better you would think this was the happiest fox you had ever seen. But if you knew this fox, really knew him like only very few really did, you would know that something was very wrong.

It had been over three weeks since the incident at the warehouse, and this fox whose name was Nick, was struggling to look like he didn't have a care in the world. He was trying too hard as his friend Finnick had mentioned to him the other night. Finnick told him flat out, "Dude, I've never seen you this messed up before. I'm not your Mom but you really need to eat something and get some sleep as you are worthless like you are now."

Nick thought about this advice as he actually heard his stomach rumble, but he pushed it down and enjoyed the pain the hunger gave him smiling and waving to his fellow officers in the ZPD. The pain was one in a long series of pains he had been enduring since the incident at the warehouse where he lost his partner and best friend Judy. He entered an office and was told to sit down and "Take off those crappy glasses off!" by rough low rumbling voice.

For the animal who owned this voice was not buying any of the crap the fox was selling. He knew that the fox was ripped to shreds inside and gave him a sorrowful stare before he continued for this was Chief Bogo of the ZPD Precinct One, City Center, and he saw through bullshit like it was invisible.

"You can fool 99% of the jokers around here fox, but you don't fool me." The huge cape buffalo declared.

"I miss her too." Bogo said in a softer voice. "It was little over a year ago when she was the biggest pain in my ass. I hate to admit it but now, but this place has gone to absolute shit without her around to keep us on the right path."

The fox, Nick, considered these words, "Another great inspirational speech Chief, you are full of them." He said with a sly smile as he made a clicking sound out of the side of his mouth and pointed his index digit at the chief.

Bogo felt the urge to reach over the desk and pound this fox into the ground. To smash him into a tiny reddish-orange furry pulp. He had been having these urges almost non-stop these past three weeks, but he then calmed down and told himself he would restrain from killing the fox for Judy's sake. **ONLY** for Judy's sake.

"Listen fox, Nick, I know you blame yourself for what happened, but it was not your fault. Believe me if I thought it was even a tiny bit, I would be down your throat. But it was not. We scoured every inch of that place and it was wiped spotless. There was no sign of her and not a single piece of fur or fiber or well anything left. These guys were professionals. The good news is that there was no blood or signs of a struggle so I believe she is still alive. The bad news is that every lead has been a dead end and we have had four more small mammals go missing since then."

He glared at the fox awhile waiting for him to respond and say something sarcastic. He was not disappointed as the fox responded, "Yep very professional I must admit. It has been such an honor working with our professionals against these professionals. I feel so much pride."

Bogo decided to let this go as he knew beating someone who had been beating themselves up a hundred times worse was pointless. "Did you guys find anything at the lead we got from the park?" Bogo queried.

The fox responded that he had gotten some fresh air, maybe even bit of a deeper red tone to his tail. And oh he had found a vendor actually selling fish and blueberry ice cream! Bogo winced at the thought of this and sighed, "Well let me know if you find anything in regards to your 'special' investigation."

The cape buffalo tried to give him a sly wink which looked quite ridiculous on a buffalo, but Nick resisted the urge to laugh and actually responded seriously, "I will Chief just as long as you never ask me how I get the information. I will make sure you are kept in the loop."

Bogo was surprised by the non flippant answer for once and decided to just leave it at that and nodded, "You may go."

Bogo knew some of Nick's ‘information’ came from Mr. Big’s mafia organization as well as numerous con artists and hustlers all over the city. What bothered him is how all these citizens and now also Judy had been removed with virtually no trace. The situation felt far worse than when predators had gone savage over a year ago as the perpetrators involved in that conspiracy were rank amateurs compared to whoever was pulling off this current wave of abductions. He kept wracking his brain trying to figure out why these smallish mammals were being taken. He figured that Judy was taken for nosing too close to the truth although she fit the profile of the other animals. If anyone could hopefully get out of a situation like that, he figured it was the ZPD's only rabbit officer. He looked up and saw that Nick had slipped out the door without saying a word. "I only hope we can get her back before that fox gets himself killed or gets himself into trouble he can't get out of." Bogo mumbled to himself.

Nick had realized awhile ago that he wasn't going to find out what happened to Judy depending on the clowns, he meant the fine officers, of the ZPD. He had called in ever favor he had, every chip or debt. He reached out to even his worst enemies, murders, thieves, rapists, whoever would offer to help him for money or favors or whatever he could provide. He only wanted his friend back in one piece with every fluffy part of her like she left, but at this point he would be happy with just knowing she was alive. He had been contacted by some people in Mr. Big's organization with the usual mark on the alleyway, and decided he would head over and see what they might have for him. He had been hesitant to go to the mob boss after their previous ‘misunderstandings’, but for Judy he would risk his life gladly, and Mr. Big had been all too happy to give any assistance he could once he found out Judy was missing. He actually was quite insistent, and Nick knew better than to turn down help offered from the most powerful mob boss in Zootopia. At this point Nick would accepted help from the devil, Dawn Bellwether or Crystalclaws himself, the nightmare from the stories parents used to tell their children to scare them witless in order to behave. He didn't care who he had to deal with if it meant finding anything about Judy and these other small mammals.

He finally decided Finnick was right. Starving himself to death and depriving himself of sleep was not going to help get Judy back. Before he left for his appointment, he ate a large breakfast of fish, eggs and berries, the classics. He then heading back to his apartment to take a short nap with a rare full belly. On his way he could not help but stare as he passed Judy's nearby door as he had moved down the same hall from her awhile back. He felt a lump in his throat noticing all of the tributes left there. Seeing some of the kids drawings some with sparkles and others with cardboard and foil brought back horrible memories.

He recalled the horrendous scene when Judy's parents had arrived here asking about her. Begging if there was anything they could do. He had seen that same scene play out over and over lately with all these other mammals families. He had learned to be indifferent to it when he had not known the victim and family. You had to be or you couldn't operate effectively. You had to give up a piece of your mammality and turn off your empathy or be driven mad. But he couldn't do that with Judy and her family. He wished he was a golem or some mechanical being without any feelings at times like that. He figured Judy’s parents had given some of her siblings the tasks of making these posters to keep them busy and give them something to do to feel helpful. He had tried to find things he could do for her parents, any of the parents to do, so they could feel in some way that they were helping to get their loved ones back.

He closed his eyes trying to get the desperate looks of Stu and Bonnie out of his head and instead imagined Finnick holding a baseball bat yelling, "Snap out of it you pansy ass! Crying isn't going to help get her back!"

Imaging the angry look of the small fennec fox gave Nick a pleasant grin. He opened the door to his room and tripped over all the junk littering the floor. The place looked like someone had robbed it. Only no one had robbed it. This was just it's special decor. Scattered pizza boxes, crumbs all over the floor, clothes strewn about, these were a few of the special features of the place Nick called home. He had made a point to keep things tidy before so that Judy would actually come over to visit, but with her gone he just didn't have any energy to make any effort. Nick took off his shirt and tie flinging them onto a chair except he missed and they slid off onto the floor, but he was beyond caring. He got into bed, set an alarm and closed his exhausted eyes. He was asleep almost immediately. The lack of sleep from the past weeks and had finally caught up with him as he had a full belly for a change.


	12. Awake at Last

Judy found herself sliding. She extended her arms and feet to stop the sliding but it did no good. She was sliding down down down on top of a never ending stream of green muck. She was going so fast she knew for certain she could never survive the impact once she hit the end of this ride of doom. Her eyes were filled with green goo and she could not see anything in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the inevitable impact that was to come. She wished she could have seen her family one last time before the end. And Nick, oh how she wished he was beside her right now giving her a "Well Carrots, it looks like you really got us into a fine **MESS** this time" as he grins lifting up his cupped paws full of green goo to emphasize the point. But the image of Nick disappears as quickly as it came as she doesn't want him here to die with her. At least he will be okay and readies herself for the end.

Only there is no end. Suddenly she feels herself floating as if on a cloud, but she can't see anything lifting her or below her. She feels herself float until she lands on the top of a mountain, but she is so high up she can't see anything. She feels the mountain come to life shaking and rumbling. _What Now!_ she exclaims to herself but just hangs on the best she can while the rumbling continues for what seems like forever and ever until she believes she can't take anymore. Finally the mountain gives out a gasp like it has died and becomes calm. She waits for a long while until she finally feels herself floating again until she lands on a white cloud except the cloud is somehow able to hold her weight. She then feels the moisture in the air press against her fur until the green goo from the slide is gone and then feels herself fall until she is in the middle of the cloud and only sees white fluffiness and then black, lots and lots of black.

* * *

Judy woke with a start as the sound of a voice roused her. It was a voice she thought she recognized from a dream or was it a nightmare. She slowly opened her eyes to see she was in an enormous bed with her head on a giant pillow and was covered in soft sheets and a blanket of an unknown fiber. She was in a room which had another virtually identical bed beside hers. In the corner there was a large cushioned chair which would have held herself and her mom and dad easily with room to spare. There was a table in between the beds with an alarm on it and a remote control. She looked for the object that went with the remote and saw a large flat television sitting on a stand on a cabinet of some sort filled with drawers. Next to the cabinet she saw a table with several portable computers that were on and had data streaming and lots of wires and equipment of some sort.

She looked for the source of the voice and heard it immediately coming from a room she couldn't see that was next to a sink and a mirror. "I'm sending you all I have now but it is going to take awhile as the connection here is not the best and this is a shit ton of data. " She heard the familiar voice say in an annoyed tone. "Yes of course I followed all the proper protocols, I am not a newb!" She heard the voice exclaim in an annoyed voice and heard heavy footsteps step on the carpet and saw a monster step out of the room and walk over looking at the computers. Wait no, this was a monster, but not a monster. It only looked similar to another she knew. The days and days of torment, pain and loneliness started to come back to her in a flash all at once and she gasped with a jolt as she realized she must be still in this hell world.

"Sweet cheese and crackers!" She exclaimed as she realized this hadn't been an endless nightmare as she thought, but was still actually happening.

She saw the creature on the phone immediately turn to look at her with a wide-eyed expression and then put his paw with an appendage which she remember he called a... finger... that was it... up in front of his mouth.

"What was what? Oh just the television." The figured responded as he quickly turned the television on. "No there is no one here with me." And a pause as he listened for a response. "I didn't tell anyone else I was here." A short pause. " **YES** I am sure I wasn't followed."

The creature who she remembered was named Drew listened for awhile and answered in annoyed tone, "Look I am giving you every bit of data I got, but I need a break after these past two weeks. I am going to relax a bit and sort through this data as it is going to take quite awhile so I figure I can relax while doing this. I will contact you if I find anything actionable otherwise consider me on break."

Judy's hearing picked up a voice on other end say, "Well just stay in contact and let us know if you need anything. You did something right for a change so just don't fuck up anything in the meantime."

She saw the... human she remembered they are called... turn off the phone and look up toward the ceiling and clench his... hands into... fists... she remembered him calling them and he tossed the phone over onto the bed and turned his attention to her.

"Glad you finally decided to join the land of the living." He said with a big grin to her. "I was really worried for awhile you might not wake up and was about to have to take you to a veterinarian I know who is discreet, but... well... you were going to be quite a difficult thing to explain. I am very glad you are looking okay."

Judy felt anything but okay. She felt so very exhausted and beat up. Even far worse than her very worst days during training exercises at the academy. Every muscle in her body was sore and stiff and cramped from being confined in such a paltry space for over three weeks. She then felt an intense pain in her side and saw a large bandage there and remembered the cutting and cutting and cutting she had encountered. She had forgotten this during the events of her escape possibly due to the pain meds she had been given, but the pain was coming back now and it felt like a panther had clawed her down the side ripping her apart.

The human, Drew, seemed to notice her wincing, "I was going to change that dressing, but I wanted you to take a bath first so I didn't have to do it twice."

It was then that she sniffed a bit and noticed the smell coming from her fur and body. She had thought it was the natural stink from these creatures... these humans... and was used to certain species having a strong natural odor so she had ignored it. But now she realized it was her making the stink. The human seemed to understand what she was thinking as she sniffed.

"I could have bathed you, but I didn't want any misunderstandings after the... well you know... misunderstandings earlier."

Judy didn't know what misunderstandings the human was referring for a minute but then remembered and winced and shuddered.

He looked embarrassed and uncomfortable, "Damn, sorry foot in mouth again, I didn't mean to bring it back up..." He started to mumble chastising himself.

"No... No... thank for that, Drew." She reassured him.

She then realized she was naked under the sheets and he noticed this, "I had to get that shirt off you once you were under there as it was covered in green puke, but I didn’t see anything. I promise!" He said in a sincere tone with his one hand up as if taking an oath.

She responded with a slight grin, "That is appreciated, but I think the ship has sailed in that department."

The human chuckled, "I am glad you can joke about it now, but I don't want to have any repeat performances if it can be helped." He gave her an apologetic look.

Judy remembered that she had no idea how she here wherever here was and asked the human what had happened and he filled her in on the details after her delirium. "That's where the slide of green goo came from." She exclaimed. Seeing the strange look on the human's face she dismissed the thought with a "Never mind." as she waved her paw at him.

"Why didn't you tell the person on the phone about me?" She asked remembering his shushing earlier.

"That is a complicated subject, my dear, or should I say my bun." He explained seemingly amused by the wordplay. "At this point the less people who know about you the better. I don't know who can be trusted or if anyone can be trusted."

Drew explained that he suspected the people in his organization would see her as something they could use to plaster all over the media as a public relations tool to further their objectives. While it would indeed most likely help start a large debate on animal rights, the problem was that it would be dangerous and potentially deadly as the entire world would want to gain access to her for publicity or potential scientific study. Judy shuddered at the thought of that. He was also concerned about what Cryodyne was doing with her and the other animals in the first place, and wanted to understand all the players involved before determining who could be trusted. His concern was for what was best for her and not humanity as a whole. She seemed amazed at this after understanding what little she knew about humans, but decided to take him at his word for now. But she still planned on keeping a close eye on him as trusting any human after what she had been through seemed very difficult at this point. She didn't understand his motivations for helping her, but she didn't have any choice at this point, and so far things were a whole lot better than being caged and tortured she figured.

"The biggest mystery is how you and potentially the other animals you mentioned got here in the first place. I can imagine that Cryodyne was studying you to determine how you are... what you are... but how you got here and what they want to do with this information is what concerns me."

Judy shook her head responding, "I wondered the exact same thing. Why bring us here? Why didn't they just talk to us or meet with our leaders or start a dialogue between the species?"

The human gave Judy a bit of a history lesson about the ‘civilized’ humans and how they have dealt with other ‘savage’ cultures in the past. How the Spanish conquered the Mayans. How the Americans of his own country dealt with the ‘savages’ they found. He gave several other examples, but Judy got the picture. Humans liked to conquer first, and ask questions later it appeared.

She got a cold chill then and felt some dread as she wondered, "Do you think they mean to conquer Zootopia?"

"I don't know Judy, but their behavior is similar to the examples I have seen. The first step of any invasion is to gather all intelligence about the 'savages' you can in order to know how they will react and how you can defeat them." He gave her an example of how his people had used blankets covered in smallpox (a deadly disease of some sort she guessed) as a ‘gift’ he called a Trojan horse, whatever the heck that was, that killed many of them and weakened the spirit of the native peoples to make them easier to conquer and subjugate.

Judy was liking humans less and less. The only hope she had was that apparently not all humans supported these actions, and she couldn’t assume all humans were monsters just like she had found that not all foxes were sly and untrustworthy as she once believed. That made her think of Nick and she wondered what he must be doing right now. Oh how she wished he was here to help her as she desperately needed someone she could trust completely right now more than ever.


	13. A New Hope

Judy finally felt almost normal for a change... almost. She had taken an hour long hot bath using this special organic shampoo the human Drew had found called Hopping Clean which left her fur feeling silky and smelling fresh. It took awhile to dry off using a blow dryer device, and when she was done she found a little package of clothes at the door to the lavatory in a bag that said Baby Gap (a clothing store of some kind she surmised) which conveniently had holes cut out of each of the pants for her tail to fit through. Drew had said these clothes were meant for very young humans and he hoped she could find something she liked. She picked out some that looked somewhat stylish. Judy was never one to really care that much about fashion, but after spending three weeks naked she really wanted something that would look nice. She liked some of the softer stretchy outfits as they seemed to fit her body better. She picked out something called banded pants with a pink top and something called a light gray reversible bear hoodie. Judy was amazed how fancy clothes for baby humans could be. The human Drew mumbled something about people with too much money when she asked about them later. Well she was glad for one thing humans had to offer. She picked out a couple more outfits and stored them in a small carry bag Drew had provided her.

After she was dressed and dry, Drew then redressed her bandage and gave her another shot of Amoxicillin and some oral pain killers as well as vitamins for rabbits. He said her wound was looking like it was healing and he didn't see any signs of infection. As he was replacing the bandage there was a loud rumble and Judy realized it was her stomach and she was starving.

She had barely eaten the green pellets that were all she was given while in the cage and apparently she had gotten rid of all those all over the security guard. She had been asleep for over twelve hours and was feeling very woozy and weak from lack of food.

She asked Drew if he had anything she could eat and he produced a tray with a huge variety of fruits and vegetables, some she recognized and some she did not. He also had several different juice boxes with straws in them for her to try. She greedily sampled a bit of every one of the drinks, fruits and vegetables and put the ones she liked the most in a pile. She didn't know their names but Drew wrote down which ones she liked best. Interestingly there were no carrots and when she asked about them Drew mentioned that it is a stereotype that rabbits prefer carrots, but that they are actually not very healthy for them and should be limited in their diet. Judy told herself her parents are not going to be happy about this fact, but that maybe rabbits where she is from must be able to handle them better. She wasn't a really big fan of carrots anyway, but there were wonderful blueberries and cherries and something called a banana which was squishy but delicious. She really like these things called peppers which came in four colors it seems as well as green beans and snap peas. She finally came to something she had never seen before called an Honeycrisp apple which Drew said was a favorite of the rabbits he knew, and sure enough they were absolutely delicious with the most amazingly sweet crisp texture she had every tried. She stuffed herself to full capacity and took another nap and enjoyed a wonderful food coma and clean fur.

For the first time in over three weeks she had a happy dream about playing on her parents farm with her brothers and sisters and having a picnic with Nick, Finnick, her parents Bonnie and Stu and... Drew. Strange that he is there, but he seemed quite at home on the farm. There was also two other humans there she did not recognize. One was slightly smaller with long blonde hair and a lean but curvy build who she assumed was a human female. There was also an older male human who she assumed must be around her fathers age who was as tall as Drew but had peppery white hair and white hair on his face under his nose and below his mouth. The humans seemed to know her friends and family which was strange but everyone seemed to be happy so she was happy too. She then entered a deep sleep.

Judy woke up with a start and didn't know where she was for a good minute. The room was dark except for the light from the computer screens across the room. The human appeared to be asleep in the other bed with his back to her. She wanted to ask him about the dream she had, but she would wait until he was awake. She hopped off the bed and went to the window and peeked out of the curtain to see that it was night outside. She noticed the large vehicle parked outside the room and supposed that was the mountain from her previous nightmare. She had lost all track of time while she had been recovering. She hopped over to a laptop on the table and raised the seat up on the chair and hopped up so she could use the computer. The human, Drew, had demonstrated how to use something called a browser before she had taken her bath and how to use a search engine to find any information she wished to know. He had told her he would be happy to try and explain anything she found and that not everything on this ‘internet’" was accurate. He had watched her awhile as she used the browser to make sure she got the hang of everything.

She had tried to search for things that were familiar to her like Zootopia or Bunnyburrow or any of the people or places she knew with no luck. She even tried looking up Yax and the Naturalist Club and got something she wished she had never seen which Drew had called a porn site. This was one of the most disgusting things she had ever seen as humans looked like they were trying to kill each other and making faces and noises to match that description. Drew had said that their behavior was mainly for entertaining people and did not accurately depict most human sex. Judy thought it all looked quite repulsive and did not think too kindly of the human creatures who would be entertained by this. She made sure to close anything that looked remotely like this anytime she saw it, but it seems this ‘internet’ place was filled with this disgusting stuff. She put another mark in the humans are monsters column and went on.

Since Drew was asleep she decided she would do the best she could and tried searching for Cryodyne, rabbits, mammals, experiment and other combinations of similar words with few results except some colorful comments on something called a forum which she did not wish to repeat. She finally decided she would have to hope Drew was able to find something in all the data he had gathered and she decided to entertain some of her curiosity and searched for rabbits. There was apparently quite a lot of information on this topic so she skimmed through much of it. It was quite disconcerting to see all these primitive forms which must have been similar to her distant ancestors. They indeed did not seem to be very intelligent but apparently humans did enjoy their company as she saw many pictures and videos of humans holding or petting them. She was quite disturbed by some results she found about "Raising rabbits for food and clothing" and almost vomited up her wonderful meal but based on how Drew had skirted similar topics when she brought them up she expected something like this. She was fascinated with ‘wild’ rabbits but saw far too many pictures and videos of her ancestors being hunted and eaten by all types of savage predators.

This was too much to bear as Judy slumped down in the chair with a sigh and wondered how she had found her way to such a brutal land. She decided to look up foxes and found many different kinds but many of the videos showed savage foxes hunting various mammals and birds and stealing eggs. She saw a couple that looked a lot like Nick but after seeing them tearing up a small gopher she decided to quit for awhile.

It appeared that in this land wherever it was, prey animals like herself were the lowest of the low. They were used by humans and predators alike for numerous nefarious purposes. Most of which did not end well for them. Her searching for rabbits and experiments had brought up a whole host of terrible images as apparently her species was used quite extensively as a caged lab animal for a wide variety of experiments. One particularly stuck with her showing some kind of face paint humans called makeup smeared all over the rabbit faces and bodies. She had even found out that her kind had been used in the past as a birth test for humans. She shuddered thinking of one of her relatives being killed each time some human wanted to know if it was pregnant. _M_ _onstrous_ she said to herself.

Drew had been right to keep most of this from her before, but after she had begun to feel better he had told her that he did not want any secrets between them and that she needed to be fully informed about the land she currently lived in and why he had been very hesitant to tell anyone about her. She then wondered about the other mammals that had been missing and the gray animal he had seen dissected in the other lab wearing the collar. The only reason for the collar she gathered was to repress speech so it appeared logical that what he had seen was one of missing Zootopians. She wondered if the others were in the same building she had been in, but Drew had said he had looked in all the labs in that branch and had not seen any others. She hypothesized that a similar fate must have befallen her missing mammals, but possibly at a different location. She hoped the information the human was trying to examine might tell her the answer.

She decided to hop down and examine the belt Drew had gotten for her and attached the goodies he had been quite pleased to have found at something called a ‘self defense’ store. The belt was made out of strong cloth type material with many ridges and had a buckle which the end would slide into and could be pressed at any point to hold it in place so it could be sized to the exact length needed. Drew had cut off the excessive end as it would be very awkward hanging down next to her otherwise. It had multiple clips which she used to attach a small taser, something call mace which must be like fox repellent from Drew's description, a small utility knife with various attachments, a small high power flashlight, flexible pawcuffs (which Drew called handcuffs) and a small dictation recorder. Judy had told Drew about her carrot pen when describing her meeting with Nick and also some of the cases she was involved in. He said that they didn't have anything like that, but this small dictation recorder was as close as he could find. She also had a case for her "burner" phone as Drew called it.

The final item Drew had found had been the hardest to locate as it was a small but powerful tranquilizer pistol which he had gotten from the discreet veterinarian (whatever that was) he had mentioned previously. He had filled darts with some of the powerful drugs he gotten with it so she had ten available. She had practiced firing this gun with empty darts to get the hang of its sightings and accuracy as she was a trained ZPD officer and knew this kind of information could save her life.

Wearing the belt she almost felt like a police officer again. She wished she had her uniform as it always gave her so much confidence and pride. She supposed it couldn't be helped as apparently they did not have police uniforms at the ‘Baby Gap’. But just being clean, well fed and equipped with knowledge and defense tools gave her some hope, and that was more important than anything. She had been so beaten down and abused for the previous three weeks that her spirit had been broken. Now that she had hope, she needed to focus on using her brain to figure out how to save herself, save her fellow missing mammals and possibly save all of Zootopia.


	14. Weasel Watching

Nick was following a weasel. This was a very difficult thing to do as weasels are quite slippery and he was making sure not to be seen. He knew this particular weasel quite well as he had many dealings with him in the past for this was none other than Duke Weaselton. It seems this weasel has found his way to get mixed up in every great conspiracy in Zootopia. It probably had to stem from the fact that no job no matter how sneaky or heinous was off limits as long as they offered him what he couldn't resist…. Money.

Nick's meeting with Mr. Big had followed a typical pattern with him showing up at one of Mr. Big's clubs and having a drink and flirting with the barkeeper until he would see a giant shadow hovering behind him. He would turn to see a giant polar bear staring down at him with an angry look on his face. "Kevin. Good to see you old friend. How's it hanging my ice loving friend?" Nick would say with his biggest grin. The bear would be expressionless and point outside to a waiting limousine. Nick would walk out and see another polar bear that could be the twin of the first holding the door open with the same humorless face. "And Raymond Too! Imagine seeing both of you together. What are the chances?" Nick would quip. The bears both ignored him and follow him into the limousine squeezing him in between them. The bears pushed a button and the windows became blackened so he would no idea where they are heading. Although he was quite certain they were heading to Tundra Town, he had no idea where in Tundra Town they would be traveling. The only sound he heard was the bears playing with their mobile devices and chuckling as they compared pictures of who had the more terrified victim. Apparently Kevin wins this round as they both chuckled loudly in a deep menacing tone as they looked at his picture of a wolf with his tail between his legs who had accidentally peed himself.

Nick is escorted into an unknown location and a bigger polar bear named Koslov entered ducking so he can squeeze through a doorway and places something in his hands carefully on a table to reveal an ancient tiny arctic shrew sitting in a wooden swivel chair. The shrew has enormous eyebrows and almost invisible eyes. The shrew extends his hand showing a large signet ring which Nick quickly steps forward and kisses reverently. All the smart ass joking is gone from the fox once he sees this figure in front of him.

The fox waits for the shrew to speak out of respect as this is Mr. Big, the most powerful crime boss in all of Zootopia. Mr. Big has been working very hard to help Nick find what happened to Judy as she is godmother to his grandson and granddaughter after Judy saved his daughters life over a year ago.

"Nick my son, it is good to see you well." The shrew says in a low raspy voice. "I know you are here for business so I will dispense with any pleasantries and get right to it. As you know I have been broken up after hearing about my grandchildren's godmother's disappearance. Family is the most important thing in the world to me and Judy has become as much of my family as my own daughter."

Nick responds with a very sad expression, "I have appreciated everything you have done. You have given me access to so many contacts that would not have ever given me the time of day otherwise but every lead so far has been a dead end. It seems no one in all of Zootopia knows anything."

"My son, I believe that this may have changed. Our contact has found out that a weasel was seen near the last disappearance of a groundhog and was observed counting come currency. I believe you are familiar with this weasel name Duke yes?" Nick nodded his head, "Well we decided to apply the usual methods to extract needed information from this weasel, however I am sorry to say that whoever this weasel was working for, he appears to have been more afraid of them than us and this disturbs me greatly."

Mr. Big raised his paw as Nick began to speak and cut him off, "Yes, yes, I know what you are going to ask. Of course we threatened to ice the weasel. In fact we did ice him… twice even… and snatched him back just before death, but he refused to talk. This weasel… he is one of the biggest cowards we know. For him to refuse our persuasion means that whoever he answers to, he believes death may be preferable to their wrath."

"We have instead kept eyes on him and have seen him go into a building in downtown, but once inside he seems to disappear. I am afraid only someone as **cunning** and **shifty** as he is stands a chance of tailing him to find out where he is going." The shrew explained making a point to emphasize the words cunning and shifty while nodding at the fox.

Nick didn't need the gesture to know the shrew was referring to himself. Nick had been an expert at moving around the city like a ghost if he needed to. He knew this weasel would be very hard to match, but he would do everything in his power to find out what he was involved in.

Nick stated his understanding of the situation to Mr. Big, "I understand exactly and you have no idea how much I appreciate your help."

Mr. Big responds waving his hand back to indicate it is no bother at all informing him, "It is my pleasure. My daughter has been asking me every day about Judy, and you would make my life much easier if you could bring her back as soon as possible. If you need any assistance don't hesitate to ask any of my associates." He nodded to indicate the polar bears in the room.

* * *

Nick had been trailing this weasel off and on for two days, and had been waiting for the moment the weasel was visiting the building Mr. Big had indicated. He had visited the building several times looking for anything out of the ordinary or anything similar to the switch that Judy had accidentally pressed in the warehouse without any luck. The weasel seemed to be quite busy with his paws in everything it seemed. He ran a business selling bootleg dvds as well as illegal weapons and stolen jewelry. Nick was getting very frustrated and extremely bored when he saw the weasel get a call on his phone and get a frightened look on his face and drop what he was doing immediately. He had been in the middle of a dvd sale when he just walked away leaving the buyer and his merchandise behind. The buyer looked shocked and then just looked down grabbed a couple dvds and hurriedly walked away.

Knowing this weasel well, he knew that whatever this call was about had to be what he was looking for as this weasel would sooner eat its young than part with money. He quickly followed behind as Duke took a very roundabout route heading closer and closer in the direction of the building. Duke would glance nervously around from time to time but he seemed very distracted which made it easy for Nick to avoid his gaze.

As he got close to the suspected building, Nick had to get as close as he possibly could as he knew he had to be almost on top of the weasel before it disappeared, and he almost got spotted as the weasel glanced back as he entered the building. Nick backed up behind a wall instantly praying he had been fast enough. As soon as he heard the door open he bolted forward catching the handle as it was closing and slipped inside. He heard steps heading upstairs which he thought was unusual as there was nothing up there. He had assumed any hidden passageways would be down below. He hurried up the stairs as quietly as a wraith and saw the weasel go into a room on the right. As he got to the door Duke had entered, he quickly glanced inside and moved his head back immediately but didn't see anything, but instead heard a sliding sound coming from the wall on the opposite side of the room. Nick entered looking for any kind of camera and not seeing anything, he examined the wall closely. Fortunately the room was slightly dusty and he could see a faint disturbance in the dust near a desk to the right. He used his nose to smell for the weasel and caught his sent on the desk. He sniffed and followed the scent to the second drawer on the right and pulled it out.

Sniffing the drawer it was difficult to pinpoint the scent, and he could not see anything, but after feeling around all over he felt a level in the back of the drawer and slid it to the right and then back. He was rewarded with the sound of a hidden panel near the desk popping slightly open. Nick wasted no time. He listened briefly for anything on the other side and hearing nothing he slipped into the wall. The door appeared to be on a timer and clicked shut behind him. He was in a pitch black stuck in a narrow wall, but fortunately Nick had perfect night vision as well as a slender flexible body and was able to feel along the wall until the found a very narrow set of stairs heading down inside the wall. Nick chuckled to himself thinking of Bogo, Clawhauser or really any of the other officers in the ZPD trying to navigate this passageway. Nick then focused all his keen senses and followed the scent of the weasel down the passageway and followed it left and down further and further. There were many places the path branched off, but fortunately the scent of the weasel gave the correct path away. He imagined the other passages might in end traps and imagined some poor souls trapped and decomposing near their ends. Finally as he headed down, he heard faint voices. He got nearer and nearer until he could make out the weasel and some other voice he didn't recognize.

"I came as soon as I could. I had to make sure I wasn't followed you know." The weasel was saying with some defensiveness.

The other voice sounded a bit frightened as he could smell a scent he recognized and heard it rub its paws nervously. "We don't want to keep them waiting. You saw what happened to the bobcat who missed the deadline didn't you? I don't know about you, but I want to keep all my…. Body parts." The unknown creature… no wait… Nick recognized that scent. It was a raccoon.

Duke acknowledged defensively, "Well I can only go so fast. I've had some guys following me recently that have been a pain to lose. Fortunately I think they gave up… think they were some of Big's goons as I had a run in with him four days ago."

The unknown raccoon nervously responded, "If the Covenant hears you saw Mr. Big you are dead dude. I mean under the grave dead." He sounded frightened out of his mind.

Duke responded with his usual bravado, "Ah I didn't give em nuttin'. I ain't no snitch. He doesn't scare me. Moron tried to scare me with death… death… ha… there are some things worse than death I have found."

"Yeah yeah okay whatever…." The raccoon responded nervously. "We need to pick up the package and take it to the rendezvous before two o’clock or we are screwed."

"Well quit yer yapping and let's get a move on then. Wonder what we got this time? Care to make it interesting? I am betting a rabbit as I heard em talking they lost one and need another."

Lost One? Nick got a bad feeling… were they talking about Judy? Was she dead! He was about to burst out and confront the two, but he calmed himself. Cool cool Nick, you are unshakable, you are _The Man_. Apparently the classes Judy had convinced him to attend worked as he calmed down and felt the _serenity_ Nangi had been driving into him. Yax had introduced him to her, and she had been teaching him how to meditate and control his emotions.

He felt himself come out of the meditation and heard the sound of some sort of metal cart moving away in the other room. He found a panel on the wall which opened a door slightly so that he could peek in and slip inside. The room was empty with only a faint pale light overhead. He looked for Duke and the raccoon frantically, and then heard their voices coming from far off down a tunnel. It was then that he realized he was in a small platform that seemed to be connected to an ancient rail system under Zootopia for he didn't recognize the station number and everything seemed extremely old and dilapidated.

Nick tried to call Bogo, but the cell phone didn't work this far underground so he was cut off and on his own apparently. Nick found a modern small electronic rail car that whoever these ‘Covenant’ must be using to move about in the city. If they were able to get around the city down here, no wonder no one saw the mammals being moved. Nick hopped in the cart and started it up. Luckily it seemed to have power and he headed off after the weasel and raccoon at maximum speed hoping he could catch them in time. He was still worried about the _lost_ rabbit they had mentioned. Nick thought of what he might do to these Covenant if something bad had happened to his friend, and had to quickly use Nangi's techniques so he didn't have an aneurysm.


	15. Finding Finnick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The character of Tala is an OC by Hlbur14 and appears in her story entitled Unnatural. She was one of my favorite OC characters from Zootopia fanfiction and I have tried to stay true to her backstory and personality. This is a slightly older version of Tala as the events of this story take place almost a year after her introduction.

A light gray bunny named Hopps prowled the mean streets of Zootopia. She had enormous purple eyes and determination in her hop. She got a bit of a self-satisfied smile as other mammals she passed would look at her with a shocked expression or sometimes open stares as she passed. Apparently they were not used to seeing a bunny in this section of town. The young rabbit started to feel a bit of that awakening she had felt nearly a year ago and it felt good... really good. She had been without it for far too long.

She finally found what she was looking for as she hopped into an alleyway filled with debris and a saw a mound of dirty dark brown fur sticking out from under some newspapers. She hopped up to the mound and poked it tentatively with a small loose board she had picked up nearby. The mountain of fur grumbled a bit but then was still. She poked it a bit more earnestly until it rose up higher and higher into the air and two large black eyes and a mouth full of teeth started turning looking from side to side until it looked down and came to rest on her small form. The towering mound looked very angry and seemed about to open its mouth wide and roar when it stopped short staring down at the small bunny with a shocked expression and quickly closed its mouth. The mound which was actually a large bear finally squinted a bit and seemed to be lost in thought.

Finally it said with a low voice, "You're supposed to be missing."

The young rabbit curtly responded, "No, I'm supposed to be right here looking for you."

The large bear started to speak and then shook his head, "They've had your picture on the news for almost a month now." He rumbled, "In fact you're right here." He grabbed some of the newspapers that he had been using as a blanket and looked though the pages until he found the picture of a rabbit among pictures of several other mammals and showed it to her.

"That's not me." The young rabbit replied.

The bear looked at the picture and looked at the rabbit in front of him. "Look… Judy" as he read the name from the paper. "I am not some speciest bear who thinks all rabbits look alike. That's you and" he looks around him looking for something "are there cameras around here? Is this some kind of damn prank show? I hate those god damn shows." He growled.

The rabbit looked up at him with her big purple eyes and got a sad look on her face, "That's my sister, Judy. My name is Tala… Tala Hopps. And the reason I am here is that rabbit you have in your big paws."

The bear spends a few moments looking at the picture and then looking at the figure in front of him and grumbles "Twins?" then shakes his head and finally extends his enormous paw twice the size of the rabbits head and full of giant claws "Gerald" he says and shakes her small paw. "Now what can I do for you… Judy's sister. And what the fuck are you doing in this section of Sahara Square?"

Tala looks unperturbed by the question, "I'm looking for Finnick. I was told you knew where I could find him." She tapped her large gray right foot with white toes on the ground a few times rapidly and looked at the bear expectantly.

"Finnick, what in God’s name are you looking for that bastard for? Most people are looking to avoid that little creep." The bear responded in a shocked and repulsed voice.

"My reasons are my own, I just need to find him." She responds defiantly, "Now can you help me or not?" She said with a bit of a determined grimace. She thinks for a few moments and then pulls out her phone and slides her paw across it several times until she mutters an "Ah" and holds it up for the bear to see. There is a picture of her and Finnick on a grassy hill smiling at each other.

Gerald shakes his head and gets a resigned look on his face, "Never seen that bastard smile before… it's... unnatural." (Get the reference?)

Gerald tells her Finnick has his van usually parked near an old storage warehouse about two miles away at this time, but he really doesn't react too well to those visiting during his ’restocking’ time.

Tala didn't know what ‘restocking’ time was, but she had wasted far too much time in the city trying to find Finnick. The number she had was almost nine months old and had been disconnected. She had become friends with both Nick and Finnick when they had both come to her families rescue as a group of predators had intentionally gone savage and had tried to kill her family. Tala and the little fennec had become very close as he had helped get her family to safety and personally protected her from a savage vixen. They had spent a fair bit of time with each other after the incident and had an unusually close bond especially as the fennec avoided being close to anyone else. She had tried to get in touch with Nick to see if he knew the new number, but had been unable to contact him either. She didn't want to go to the ZPD as that would be very complicated and would ultimately lead to her parents knowing she was here and that would be… messy… very messy.

Tala took off at a run heading in the direction the bear had indicated and started to pick up speed. One thing different about Tala than her older twin sister was she had long legs that she hadn't quite grown into yet as her parents kept telling her, but those legs made her the fastest rabbit in all of Bunnyburrow and that is saying something. She was also not afraid to run on all fours like her ancestors as she didn't give a shit what people thought she just wanted to go fast, **really really FAST**.

Tala loved the feel of the breeze when she ran as her large ears would fly back and her clothes would whip around her. She could turn an internal dial and crank her pace up to speeds a cheetah would be proud of and make turns that most would think were impossible. When she ran like this she almost felt… satisfied… and that feeling was a rare one for her. She could force out all distractions around her and only focus on the run… and ultimately her destination. Things around her would blur and only obstacles in her path would appear with clarity as everything else didn't matter.

Tala was a younger middle child in the huge Hopps family and enjoyed the invisibility that brought as her parents were always busy focused on her older siblings like Judy and the newest arrivals which was fine with her. Where Judy was outspoken about her plans to do great things as a child, Tala preferred being invisible. It did not mean she didn't have the same ambition only that she preferred not having the attention that goes along with that ambition.

Tala always had a special bond with her sister Judy. They looked almost alike except she had the longer legs and her eyes were a slightly dark shade of extremely rare purple. Many seeing pictures of Judy as a teenager thought they were looking at current pictures of Tala. It was confusing as PopPop always thought she was Judy and would pester her all the time asking her if she had been eaten yet and going on and on about speciest opinions on foxes and how they were sent from the devil to destroy all of bunnykind. Judy had been a beacon of hope for Tala as she saw her as a trailblazer who was the first in the family to break the generic mold and do something great with her life, something no bunny had done before when Judy had become the first rabbit police officer. Tala held onto similar dreams and had ambitions possibly even greater than her sister’s. What was different was that Tala kept these thoughts to herself unlike Judy who made sure everyone knew what she had wanted to accomplish. Tala was very private in her thoughts and ambitions. While others got their kicks playing with others, Tala preferred to read and study and learn about the world that way.

Except when she ran. When she ran she would go _savage._ She would laugh to herself imagining she was one of her wild ancestors fleeing for her life from some vicious animal. This is what drove her to faster and faster speeds. She became a primal bunny changing directions on a whim imagining predators frustrated yelps as they could not follow her lightning fast movements. While a cheetah could move fast in a straight line her advantage was she could make turns at full speed without losing any pace or momentum. She could almost understand why some predators had **wanted** to go savage… almost… if this is what it felt like for them. She thought back about how she had narrowly escaped death at the claws of a savage panther who destroyed a good portion of her home before being distracted by her sister Judy. She remembered the terror fleeing from the savage vixen who lusted for her death, but she remembered something else… she remembered the rush… the adrenaline. She remembered feeling alive for the first time in her life.

After what seemed like only moment and far too short a time, Tala spotted what had to be Finnick's van parked near a building she surmised must be the warehouse as it was a large two story building with a roof that was beginning to rust and had dirty panes of glass a few of which were broken. Finnick's van was an orange old model with an unpainted steel door on the driver's side and had an amazing painting of what appeared to be a type of fox in an ancient warriors headdress along with armor and a sword holding a gorgeous slender female arctic fox wearing a beautiful ancient green dress in his arms. It was the most beautiful painting Tala had ever seen in her life and it was on the side of a van. Tala smiled and got a kick out of that. Tala loved unconventional and this was that in spades.

Tala's ears went up alert as she heard a noise coming from behind the van and moved slowly around as she heard a sliding sound, and saw a box seemingly floating in the air coming out of the van. It wasn't until she looked down and saw two small tan brown feet ruining the illusion that she knew she had found her quarry.

"Um Finnick." She said hesitantly in a soft voice. Tala knew better than to try and surprise Finnick as anyone who has tried this in the past had lived to regret it, and she didn't want to take the chance of bodily harm.

Instantly she saw the box drop and heard an impossibly deep angry voice yell, "Who is It!" Followed by the instant appearance of a bat menacing out the side of the box. "Show yourself before I drop your fucking ass and bite your face off!" She heard the very low booming angry voice yell.

Tala waved her paw around a side of the box so the thing on the other side of it could hopefully see and timidly responded "It's me Finnick... Tala."

"Tala?" She heard the booming voice say hesitantly. "That's impossible. The only Tala I know is in..."

She saw some enormous ears appear around the side of the box followed by a small fennec fox wearing a black bowling shirt with a red stripe, tan shorts and black sunglasses holding a baseball bat. The fox dropped the bat in shock and took off his glasses staring at the bunny with a puzzled stunned expression.

"Tala is that really you?" He said in a deep soft voice. Anyone who knew the fennec would never recognize that voice as it sounded gentle and caring. Something almost no one had ever heard. No one except Tala.

Tala hopped forward and embraced the little fennec very tightly closing her eyes and smiling an enormous smile as her head tilted down on top of his head in between his large ears and hugged him for all her worth. The fennec hesitantly hugged her back with a very puzzled expression before he finally separated from her, "What are you doing here?"

Tala explained that after Judy had gone missing thing in the Hopps household turned upside down. Her parents had been frantic and even gone searching around Zootopia talking to Nick, the ZPD, and anyone else who would listen asking about her. Tala had never felt so invisible in her life as no one had even acknowledged her existence for weeks. Normally Tala would have not minded this one bit, in fact she would have relished it, but not with Judy missing.

The panic and tension around the Hopps household had reached a fever pitch as everyone was always glued to the news and discussing any possible rumor they heard concerning Judy and the missing mammals. She had heard every conspiracy imaginable from space aliens to intelligent plants dragging unsuspecting mammals into the jungle. One night Tala had a dream or nightmare of Judy calling to her. Judy was in a strange place far from Zootopia. She was so very hurt and confused and she was giving up. She told Tala she was going to die and wanted to say how much she had loved their special bond and wished she could see what her baby sister was going to become. She knew that Tala was going to shock the world, and she only wished she could have been there to see it. Tala had screamed, cried, pleaded with her sister to not give up, to have faith her friends would find her. Judy had said she had lost all hope and was ready for death. That is would be preferable to what was happening to her. Judy called that she loved her and for Tala to always know that, even if she never saw her again. To remember her and not let what happened to her stop Tala from pursuing her dreams. Tala had screamed when she felt the link with Judy break and tears rolled from her eyes. She had already seen Judy almost die at the hands of a savage vixen and to lose her again to this… to something she could not see was too much for her to bear.

Tala wailed uncontrollably and Finnick hugged her gently trying to do what he could to comfort the inconsolable bunny. Tala's chest heaved up and down and she sobbed wetting the fennec's shirt sleeve until it was dripping down on the ground in a puddle. After several minutes the shaking and weeping finally stopped as the young bunny tried to gather herself. She looked miserable, even worse than when he was with her watching her sister torn apart. He couldn't imagine what Tala must have seen in this vision of Judy. But whatever it was, it was bad… **really really bad**.

Tala finally continued telling him that she somehow felt her sisters agony from far away as if she had an invisible string connecting them across the universe and felt the end come, but that it didn't. Somehow she knew she was still alive and knew in her heart that her sister needed her help. She couldn't explain it. She just knew it, and knew she had to come to where it all started. She knew her parents or siblings would not understand it… she figured no one would believe it or give it any credence whatsoever… no one that is but Judy herself.

Tala had determined then and there to come to Zootopia and find out what happened to her sister and do whatever she could to help find her way to her. She still felt the link… very very faintly but it was still there she had no doubt. She gathered some money she had saved working various jobs over the past several years and packed a bag and bought a bus ticket to Zootopia. Fortunately she looked older than her years and they did not question her buying the ticket. Maybe the clerk was confused and thought she was Judy. It didn't matter as she got on the bus and headed off. She had tried to contact Finnick but the phone number was no longer valid, and she couldn't get in touch with Nick so she headed to Sahara Square as she knew Finnick lived in this area. She wandered around asking for him until she figured out that only the more unsavory types had heard of him. She had finally found some people that pointed her to a homeless bear named Gerald who finally told her where he was after a good bit of convincing.

"And that is how I am here now." Tala explained to the fennec who was staring a bit off to the side with a thoughtful expression.

"Do your parents or anyone know you are here?" He asked after awhile.

"Well no. No one has called. I doubt anyone will know I am even gone for quite awhile. Things have really gone crazy at our house. I was hoping to be done and back before they noticed." She said with a hopeful look.

Finnick thought about this for awhile, "You parents, Nick and Judy would kill me for not informing them you were here." He thought for a moment. "But they would also kill me for not helping you so I am damned either way."

He finally came to decision, “Well I gotta get in touch with Nick no matter what and that is nonnegotiable." Tala shook her head yes. The fennec tried to call Nick, but got no answer and left a message.

He looked at the bunny and noticed she looked a bit tired, "How about we get you some food first and a bit of rest before we see about your adventure." Tala got a big smile on her face and hugged the little fennec again. He looked a bit uncomfortable and got a look like _if this was anyone else and I would beat them senseless_ and returned her hug.

"Do you need help with the boxes?" Tala quiered as she saw he had several in the van.

He thought about it responding, "Don't really want you involved. Corruption of a minor and all." He saw the eager look on her face and relented, "Ah what the hell. It is pretty trivial with all the other charges racking up. Just put it on the tab." He nodded his head toward one of the other boxes and she picked it up following him into the warehouse.

She and Finnick finished unloading all the boxes from the van many of which seemed to have various electronics on the outside and stacked them in a hidden room in the basement which was filled with all kinds of merchandise. Most of the items were in plain boxes, but from the ones she could see, they contained a mixture of valuable electronics, foodstuffs and clothing.

After they had driven to a diner, gotten a good meal and caught up on what each other had been doing since they had seen each other last the fennec finally asked, "So where to my prescient bunny?"

"Finnick" She responded surprised, "How do you even know what that means?"

"I'm no dumb fox just like you aren't any dumb bunny my studious friend. You're not the only one who reads you know!" He said with a bit of the old Finnick feigning being insulted.

"Well like I said, we need to go where it all started. Now where did my sister disappear?"


	16. Surfs Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While this chapter is a bit different than others I felt it was important to demonstrate how completely alien human behavior must appear to Judy once she wasn't busy just trying survive and illustrates how she is trying to wrestle with the differences of this world where she finds herself trapped from her beloved Zootopia.

Going through all the mounds of data appeared to be taking quite awhile as the human, Drew worked furiously examining each piece looking up more information on this internet thing and cross referencing the data with other information he had found. This had gone on for days and Judy had become bored watching the human.

Judy spent most of her time _surfing the internet_ which is the correct phrase apparently. Judy wondered what this had to do with riding waves, but she had far more important questions to answer. She wished she could help Drew, but he said it was important she get a grasp on the world in which she found herself.

Judy studied human history and civilization. Apparently the humans ancestors were some type of thing called an ape and they had been savage once as well. While other animals would depend on their natural abilities whether keen eyesight, speed, sharp teeth, claws, climbing ability, etc. humans were not really exceptional in any of these areas, but they used their brains, tools and cooperation with others of their kind to survive and thrive in this world.

Judy knew her ancestors and those of other species had similar epiphanies and evolved in a similar fashion, but apparently the animals of this world did not and remained in their primitive forms. This may have been due to the human's rise in dominance which may have prevented her kind and other species from developing on this world.

Much of the history seemed to revolve around wars and conflicts. These humans apparently loved to fight and kill each other. Most of the wars seemed to center around humans being different from one another and so they would fight and kill to show whose skin color, religion/beliefs or allegiance to a certain leader was right.

In current history she read about world wars where humans all around the world were involved in the killing. These humans seemed to find so many different ways to kill and harm each other using drugs, chemicals and gases, bombs and bullets, axes and knives, even psychological means. She learned how millions and millions of humans died and were experimented on by other humans. Judy shuddered thinking of what she had experienced and the thought of other humans doing this to each other made her nauseous. The thought of a bunny doing these things to any other bunny was abhorrent and inconceivable.

During these sessions she would mutter _monsters_ from time to time resulting in a concerned glance from Drew. He had asked if they had wars in Zootopia. She had responded that in their past predators had hunted her kind and other mammals for food and sometimes groups of animals would have conflicts with each other for resources such as homes, land or food, but these were generally very small conflicts and the intention was to drive the others out not to commit genocide. She had told him about her encounters recently with some small groups of predators and prey trying to gain dominance. Drew said these seemed quite tame and inconsequential compared to current conflicts going on in this world. Wars, terrorism, natural disasters all seemed to dominate the news.

When things got her too down she would search for other topics. Drew suggested something called Youtube where you could view all kinds of videos about really anything. She enjoyed the huge variety of music and songs. Apparently they had so many different kinds of music and numerous varied music stars and bands. She then saw all these videos with animals called dogs and cats and asked Drew what these were as she did not recognize them.

Drew was surprised Zootopia did not have these as apparently they are quite numerous in this world but he brightened and explained, "Dogs are the distant relatives of wolves who came to live with early forms of humans. They found that living with humans meant they could get a regular meal without having to hunt for it themselves and would form a pack bond with humans instead of other wolves. Humans would use the wolves natural ability of keen hearing and smell to warn them of danger and their speed and cunning to help them hunt. Eventually over millennia humans would breed wolves with certain traits especially ones that would work better with humans and the result was the dog. Humans bred different specific types of dogs so you had a variety of breeds of many different sizes, shapes and personalities."

"So they were slaves of these humans? Forced to mate with only those the humans would allow?" She challenged with a frown on her face.

"I wouldn't call them slaves. Dogs are pack animals and they deferred to humans as thier pack leaders. Pack leaders control who has rights to mate with whom so in a similar way humans expressed their leadership and dominance as pack leaders."

Judy didn't really buy this explanation. While it made logical sense, it seemed humans thought they were better than all animals and could do with them whatever they wanted. She didn't say this as she didn't want to have a long argument but, instead had many other questions to ask such as, "And what are these cats I see everywhere? It seems half the videos on this Youtube feature them?"

Drew responded, "Cats are the decedents of certain small relatives of your panthers, tigers and leopards that came to live near humans. They did this as where humans went so did many rodents who would feed on the refuse and foods humans kept around. Humans were very happy to have these small cats as they were experts at hunting these mice and rats and kept the population down. Soon humans found they enjoyed the company of these cats and kept them as companions as they did with dogs. They would breed those cats that got along best with humans and gradually over millennia you have the cats you see today. There are many different types as humans would selectively breed certain cats together to express certain traits."

"So once again humans forced cats to mate with one another and manipulated them for their own gains?" Judy angrily asked ready for a fight. She had **enough** hearing about how humans used cats to murder millions of innocent rodents. She thought of all the citizens of Little Rodentia being hunted by these cats gobbling them up by the handful as humans looked down gleefully laughing and pointing saying, "Good kitty... now more!".

Drew seemed hesitant hearing the tone in Judy's voice and carefully responded, "It is hard for me to think of humans as oppressors to cats or dogs. Humans love them as much or more than their own children sometimes. While it is true humans manipulated many of them in respect to mating, it was usually for the purpose of creating descendants who had a greater bond with humans. As far as the rodents like mice and rats, humans for the most part see them as pests and try to kill them whenever possible."

Judy shuddered at the thought of that but got a thought. "What about rabbits?" She asked curiously.

Drew paused a bit before answering, "Rabbits relationship with humans is fairly complicated. While those growing food that the rabbits decide to claim for themselves are seen as pests like mice and rats, others commonly see them as companions for humans as domesticated rabbits are quite clean and friendly. While humans hunted rabbits in the past for food and clothing, this is not very commonplace now. Humans do still use rabbits and other small mammals for lab experimentation and rabbits in the wild are common prey for all kinds of predators. I am sorry for the truth of it Judy. Most humans do love rabbits as I am sure you have seen from many of the videos, but the life of a rabbit here on Earth is not that pleasant. I wish I could tell you otherwise."

Judy got a sad look on her face and decided she needed to think on all this. It was clear humans seemed to like many animals, but the evidence of manipulation and enslavement of most of them made her sick. It was clear humans enjoyed watching the animals as she saw millions of videos of them doing just common things such as sleeping to slipping and falling followed by great laughter. Judy didn't think these things were funny as she didn't like the animals being objects of amusement, but humans did seem to care about most of these animals so it was very complicated as Drew had mentioned.

Judy found things called zoos where animals were kept as prisoners for humans to come and visit them. She asked Drew what they had done wrong to be imprisoned, and he said they weren't really prisoners, but were entertainment and education for humans. He couldn't really justify the existence of the zoos except to say they were useful in educating humans about different species of animals and learning about their behavior.

Judy slumped down in her chair. Her head was full of so many confusing thoughts and opinions. She was not sure she was ever going to understand humans. They seemed so alien compared to other animal species.

It was then she heard Drew yell from next to her as he was staring at the screen, " **Finally!** " with a huge grin on his face and an excited gleam in his eyes.


	17. Finally Some Answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now for the science fiction part. While virtually no AU Fan Fiction attempts to remotely explain how the AU even exists, I am not one to take the easy way out as demonstrated by this entire work, and attempt to explain how it is possible in this and later chapters using modern science.

Drew looked up from the screen with a wide eyed hopeful look on his face.

"I think I may know some of what is going on finally Judy!"

"Well don't sit there looking smug, **out with it**!" Judy exclaimed hopping down from her chain and rapidly tapping her foot in anticipation.

"We were correct in assuming the people at Cryodyne were studying you or I mean Zootopians in general. It appears they were comparing your genetic makeup to current similar species here. For example comparing your genetics to our normal rabbits. They were doing this for multiple species identifying genetic markers and deviations from the more primitive versions we have here and then looking for commonalities among all the unique genetics of the different evolved species. It would be brilliant and groundbreaking if only I believed they had pure motives."

"What makes you think their motives aren't pure?" Judy asked cautiously.

"Well the fact that it appears many Zootopians have been kidnapped, tortured and killed in secret doesn't exactly give them a sparkling reputation, but the research appears to be focused on the manipulation and modification of those genetic markers."

"To what end?" Judy quiered.

"Well this is the part I am unsure of as they could do a whole host of things with this information and some of the other advanced scientific research they have been looking into. For example they could attempt to modify the genome of current rabbits through gene splicing and gene therapy in order to create an intelligent bunny such as yourself, but possibly with other more enhanced features. The most frightening part is that they would have a blank slate which they could mold and shape into doing anything they wanted. Imagine bunnies trained to carry bombs or viruses. Imagine all the small places they could get into and how they could avoid being seen. "

"Bunnies would never do such **terrible things**!" Judy exclaimed defiantly.

"But what if the bunnies only know what their human masters tell them? What would they do if they didn't know there was a happy way of life as you have in Zootopia and only knew hate and pain? What if the humans convinced the bunnies that their survival depended on carrying out whatever task they desired?"

Judy thought on this a bit and said “monstrous” under her breath and then countered, "But couldn't the bunnies will be great enough to overcome this manipulation? Bunnies inherently are not violent and hateful. It is not in our nature."

Drew then told Judy numerous examples of similar _brainwashing_ and _indoctrination_ that groups of humans did in order to get their followers to carry out incredibly hateful and barbaric acts. How they would even misuse their culture and religion to preach hate and bigotry and intolerance to the people from a young age so they knew nothing else. How they would then use those so indoctrinated to carry out unspeakable acts of murder and terrorism. He talked about how rebel tribes in a place called Africa would seek out young children and have them commit the worst crimes imaginable such as killing their own parents and cutting all their ties with their families so they had no one to turn to but those same rebels. How the guilt of the children made them believe they were beyond redemption and would become true monsters spreading death and pain.

Drew finally had to stop as Judy was sobbing as she heard of such heinous acts and wished she was back in Zootopia. Drew was right, the acts of Mayor Bellwether and Ffion seemed so tame in comparison to such horror.

After she had calmed down Drew apologetically continued, "Judy I apologize for upsetting you. I just wanted to give many examples of how humans use these techniques every day for their own agendas. Manipulation of others to create brainwashed soldiers is not very far fetched, but there could be many other reasons for their research."

"They could seek to understand the genetics in order to use a weapon to kill or harm those of your species. They could want to make you vulnerable so they could manipulate and control your kind and thus control Zootopia. The only thing stopping this is how they could possibly get to Zootopia. But I think I have discovered some strong clues indicating how this is possible."

"Do you think there is a way back?" Judy said tentatively.

"Well I can't see any other explanation for what I have found."

Drew then turned the screen so she could see, and showed her a huge network of red lines running from various small cylindrical buildings all feeding into a central area. Judy asked what she was looking at.

"This is the most powerful energy generator I have ever heard of. The power that is contained in this building is almost impossible. You could power the energy needs of the entire world if these numbers are to be believed. Based on the other information I have found there is only one possible use I can think of for this much power. A means to warp or punch a hole into dimensional space in order to access a parallel universe, a rift in time or a fold in space."

" **WHAT!** " Said Judy with complete shock on her face and her mouth hanging open.

"Yes I know it sounds impossible, but I would have thought talking rabbits and a placed like Zootopia was impossible just a few days ago. Theoretically the science says it is possible, but that the power required is inconceivable. Wormholes exist in the universe connecting points in space time and potentially alternative or parallel universes, but they are unstable and uncontrollable. In order to actually create a stable connection you would need unheard of power as well as materials able to focus and control this energy without disintegrating. Then you have the problem of trying to send living matter between these dimensions."

"But how do you know this is what it is being used for?" Judy wondered.

“A Very good question. According to the data in the lab you were sent here approximately twenty-four days ago. You had said that there were five mammals that you were searching for before you disappeared correct?" Judy shook her head yes. “It appears this generator went active around sixty days ago. There were several bursts from it for several days apparently tests of some kind. Then there appeared to be regular bursts every day at the same time for around ten minutes or so. About fifty days ago there appears to have been a series of small blips indicating something passed through the portal to Earth, but that based on data I later gathered this does not seem to be organic matter, but something in a container. A couple days later another blip followed and a third days after that. Then the regular ten minute small bursts continued until twenty-eight days ago when there were five huge power spikes. The energy readings are off the scale – if it had been connected to the power grid the lights of the entire world would have gone out five times. The technology specifications I have read appear that they are routing energy to a negative energy generator which is what you would use to create a wormhole. Twenty-four days ago there was a single blip about the same intensity as the first five."

"Me!" Judy gasped holding her paws to her face with her mouth open.

Drew nodded, "And then eight days ago there were four more blips about the same as the others some slightly larger than others. There were some smaller blips which seem to be containers of some sort, some being sent one direction and some the other. Nothing large enough to be a human appears to have been sent the other direction… yet."

Judy still had her mouth open and looked completely dumbfounded. She finally broke her silence contemplation, "How could this much energy be created?"

"Well this is the part that really intrigues me as humans on this world have major energy issues."

Drew described all the kinds of energy used as well as problems with carbon emissions and pollution. He also described how energy resources was one of the major conflicts of humanity and then finally asked, “How do you power Zootopia?”

Judy answered reluctantly, "I am not exactly sure as I am not a scientist, but we don't have the problems you seem to have with pollution and emissions. From my experience most everything is powered by electricity."

"But how is that generated?" Drew wondered.

"I am not sure. It is not something anyone has discussed. It has just always been there, but we have been isolated in Bunnyburrow so I am sure there are scientists who might know the answer." Judy responded.

"Well I think I may have an idea. It seems that much of the design of this power generator is designed to run off Helium-3 which is a non radioactive isotope of Helium and can be used as a safe and stable generator of nuclear power without needing the massive infrastructure of a normal nuclear power plant and has massive power potentials. The only problem is He-3 is virtually non-existent on our world and only available in some places such as our moon as well as some asteroids and planets all of which our current technology is unable to access. I know most of this is going over your head, but let me just say that the only reason that these generators should exists is if they somehow they were able to gain access to this material somehow."

Judy stood and stared at him and waited for him to continue.

"I theorize based on the information I have found that somehow there seems to be a weak spot in the fabric between dimensions near this facility." Drew points to a place on the map where all the red lines led into. " Scientists must have tried to punch through at this point and somehow gained access to a resource unavailable here He-3. Somehow they must have gained access to someone on the other side of this gateway and have been communicating on a regular basis. Shortly after the small shipments, we saw these He-3 reactors were then tested and became operational. Shortly after this those same reactors fired up to full capacity and led to you and your fellow mammals going through. The timeline all makes sense."

Judy thought for awhile, "Who are the humans communicating with and why are they experimenting on those sent through rather than greeting and welcoming them as travelers and explorers?"

"I have no answer to that. I also don't know for sure travel to Zootopia is possible, but it appears some shipments of something have been sent in the other direction. Because it appears the animals sent through were sent involuntarily, it appears they must be sacrifices of some sort. I am not sure if this is similar to how superstitious people of our world would sacrifice virgins to a volcano god but..."

"WHAT!" Judy exclaimed.

"Look it up sometime later Judy, but there have been many examples of human cultures using sacrifices to unknown deities from the Ancient Egyptians to the Celts to the Aztecs and so many more. Possibly this is the same type thing?"

"Is there anything terrible you humans **won't** do?" Judy spat with an angry look on her face.

"Well it appears your fellow animals must be participating, otherwise how else would you be here?" Drew countered.

Judy didn't have an answer for this and looked down with a dejected look.

"Well regardless it appears the people running this have gained access to He-3 and test subjects. What I am wondering is what is the other side getting out of this? The constant access of data shows a great deal of some kind of communication indicating that some kind of bargain must be happening."

"Can you see what is being said?" Judy asks hopefully.

"Unfortunately it just appears as static behind massive amounts of energy, but it is definitely irregular like communication would be with pauses and briefs bursts in both directions." Drew explained.

"But how can just one company be doing all this?" Judy queried disbelieving. Judy had researched corporations and while some seemed large and powerful, everything she found on Cryodyne suggested it did not have close to the resources needed to pull something like this off.

"I am afraid I think I have the answer to that as well." Drew said with a sorrowful grimace. "Apparently Cryodyne is a sub-contractor for DARPA, and is working with them and a couple other government research agencies." He sees Judy about to speak and puts his hand up and explained, "DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and is one of the major pioneers in cutting edge scientific research. In fact they developed the beginnings of that internet you have been using. Now I don't know exactly to what extent they are involved. I just know they have provided an enormous amount of people, money and resources to this project and were responsible for building the power generators and the equipment able to generate negative energy."

"So your government is involved in a plan to **enslave** my people!" Judy said with tears starting to come to her eyes.

Drew quickly interrupted her in an attempt to halt the waterworks, "Judy I don't know that is their objective, and I don't know to what extent the government is involved. A lot of that is only conjecture based on what information I have, but there could be many possible explanations. Unfortunately this looks way bigger than I can handle alone, and I am going to have to bring some people in on this to try and help."

Judy got a very worried look and hesitantly asked, "You are going to tell them about me? What about the part where they use me for publicity and experimentation?"

Drew attempted to relieve her fears, "I am not going to mention you Judy, only what is going on at the facility. I am going to need someone or a team of someones who can get me in there and someone who might be able to make sense of this data as well as possibly someone who can use the equipment to get you back home. I have a lot of data on it's design and development, and hope I can find an expert who can make sense of it. I would only make you known if there is no other choice. and only if I was sure you would not be at risk from their knowledge. Unfortunately I can't guarantee your safety going into this place as we could easily get caught and die or you could become an experiment again. It is up to you if you want to do this. I am happy to keep you hidden and protected as long as you wish or as long as my resources hold out. You do seem to be wiping out my food and clothing budget pretty damn fast."

Judy's serious face turns into a smile, "Oh har de har har! I can't help you keep bringing me new delicious things to try. I have barely eaten in a month!"

Drew puts up his hands in mock defense, "Okay okay my super bunny. Please don't hurt me." As he glances at the arsenal of weapons around her waist.

Judy smiles and then gets a serious face as her ears droop down behind her, "I have to admit the thought of going back to the people who did what they did to me petrifies me but… not ever seeing my friends, family and Zootopia ever again is even scarier. Also the thought of what these people have planned for Zootopia frightens me more than anything."

Judy's face changes as if coming to a decision and she gets a determined look on her face and her ears perk up and shes stands as straight and tall as she can muster declaring, "Do what you have to do. I will not hide and cower while my world is threatened! I am a rabbit, a ZPD officer and a citizen of Zootopia. My kind has spent their lives cowering in fear of everything but **no more**. It is time I fight for something much greater than myself no matter the consequences. Now let's kick some tail!"


	18. Down the Rabbit Hole

Finnick had driven himself and Tala all the way across town until they came to the warehouse Nick and Judy had been investigating almost a month before. The remains of some police tape could be seen laying along the ground in the grass and under some bushes, but it was obvious the police had cleared out of this area a long time ago.

Finnick grabbed some brass knuckles and a taser out of the glove compartment and handed the taser to Tala while he grabbed his signature baseball bat from the back of the van. Tala looked at the taser hesitantly and Finnick told her, "We need to be ready for anything."

Tala nodded and they heading into the warehouse cautiously.

It did not take them long to find the hidden ramp as the boards all around it had been pulled up and there was a temporary wooden gate around the ramp so that no one would accidentally fall down into it.

Tala hopped over the fence and the little fennec lowered his head and stepped under it as they then made their way down the ramp and found themselves in a small room about ten meters by twenty. Around the room they could see numerous places where pieces of the wall had been pulled out.

"Looks like the cops did a number on this place. Don't see any way out of here except up." Finnick stated factually.

Tala then began to wander around the room sniffing and putting her ear to the wall with a determined yet puzzled look on her face. This continued for a good half of an hour. The fennec gave up following her around and finally sat down in the middle of the room looking bored. He tried calling Nick several mores times with no luck. So he decided to practice swinging his bat at invisible targets followed by some punches and kicks in various combinations. Finnick was becoming very doubtful Tala would find anything, but he figured he owed it to her. Secretly he wished she would get bored and quit as the people involved in this mess do not seem like the types with which you wanted to cross paths. But he figured he would get warmed up just in case he needed to bust some heads. Finnick would never admit to being scared, but he also did not want to be in a situation where Tala would be harmed, and he was still a bit frightened by the dream or premonition or whatever it was she had with her sister.

Finnick knew Tala enough to not dismiss these premonitions of hers as he had seen her sense things before. A few times she had known when Judy and Nick were in trouble and had called him to help them out of a jam. Virtually every time these feelings only involved her sister Judy. Finnick had seen far too many strange things in his life, and he wasn't one to completely dismiss things out of hand. If Tala had said she sensed these things, he believed her. He only hoped it didn't get the two of them killed. If he somehow survived and anything happened to Tala, he was pretty sure the ghost of Judy would haunt him until he wished he had died. Finnick was lost in thought when he heard Tala declare, "It doesn't make any sense. I know she was taken from here but where?"

"Well am sure the cops checked every square inch of this place. They can be pretty useless, but when they do actually put their minds to something especially if something happens to one of their own they can usually find the answer… if there is an answer..." Finnick trailed off.

Tala closed her eyes and walked back up the ramp. She then seemed to go into a trance and tumble down the stairs slamming into the wall and some already broken crates.

Finnick instantly ran to her to see if she was okay, but saw she still appeared to be in a trance of some sort. She then stood up and looked upstairs as if hearing something and then got a shocked look on her face and collapsed.

She remained that way for awhile and the fennec was about to go and wake her when she seemed to get up and move as if she was a spirit of some sort. She moved across the room and then seemed to collapse in a the corner the farthest away from the bottom of the ramp.

She lay there for several minutes and finally Finnick gently shook the bunny until she woke with a startled look on her face and looked up from the floor. "What happened?" She asked.

"Looked like you were sleep walking or something to me." Finnick described what he had seen and Tala got a puzzled look on her face.

"And I collapsed right here huh?"

She search all along the wood and around the walls, but could find nothing unusual or out of sorts. Then she got an idea and started tapping her foot rapidly on the floor all around the area she had collapsed. Her ears went into full alert mode listening intently and she shushed Finnick when he tried to open his mouth. She would tap a bit listening and stop then slowly move a bit more and tap again. Finally she got a smile on her face and leaned down close to a spot and felt one board. She put her ear right next to it and tapped on it several times with her paw. She tried tapping with a couple different patterns. She then hit it with a tap tap pause tap tap pause tap tap tap pause. And then suddenly the end of the board popped up and Finnick and Tala looked down to see a small handle.

Tala looked to Finnick and then down to the handle.

"This is all you my girl. You found it. I am letting you do the honors." Finnick stated beginning to tightly grip his baseball bat with purpose.

Tala cautiously grabbed the handle and pulled.

All of a sudden the pair felt the room move and suddenly they were weightless and then "Umph!" they both exclaimed as their breath was knocked out from their chests.

They looked up and saw they were under the room and in pitch black. Tala could not see much of anything and had to rely on Finnick to describe the scene to her.

"Looks like we are under the room. I can see a small ladder on the wall leading back up to the room. Looks like a really long tunnel heading down. Can't see much past about fifty meters or so… just know it is heading down."

"Thanks." Tala said disoriented.

Finnick held out his paw reaching until he grabbed Tala's and cupped her paw tightly in his and led her down the hallway one hand holding the frightened bunny and the other holding his bat Betty.

"God dammit Nick, where the hell are you anyway?" The fennec grumbled to himself.


	19. A Fox in the Lion's Den

Nick had been pursuing the gruesome twosome as he had nicknamed Duke and the unknown raccoon for many kilometers under the city. He had to listen carefully and switch tracks to match the path the pair were taking. He marveled at this ancient subway system that seemed to go all over Zootopia. He wondered why he had never heard of this, but figured he didn't know much about the early days of the city. Who knows what other secrets existed from the old city, but he didn't have time to think on this further as he heard the duo getting closer and the metal sounds of brakes.

Nick instantly started pumping his brakes to try and match the sound ahead, and hoped he would slow down in time. He saw he was approaching a station and slammed on the brakes to stop short as he saw the light from ahead.

He listened carefully hoping the twosome hadn't heard anything and heard a faint echoed voice ask, "What was that?"

"Don't hear nuttin'. Whatcha on about now?"

"I swear I heard the sound of brakes."

"Probably just an echo from our car. Damn jumpy aren't ya?"

"Well I have a right to be. I hope this is the last delivery. I'm really not up for any more of this shit. I mean I know I really needed the money but… money doesn't mean much if I'm not alive to spend any of it."

"Ah I like money more than the next guy, but these guys got big plans. **BIG** plans. And I wouldn't mind fittin' in those plans if ya know what I mean."

"Well you can have it dude. I am happy to take the money and run with my fur intact if you get my drift. I don't feel like being made into a hat."

"Just don't tell em you are out or you will be. No one gets out. Not alive anyway."

"Ah 'ere is the package. Wheel it on board. Ha! Damn... was right... you owe me a twenty. A rabbit and a sheep."

"I didn't agree to that bet."

"Ya said uh huh. Tryin' to weasel your way out of it eh? That's my gig. Heh heh heh."

"Fine I'll pay just shut up and let's get going. I don't want to be late, and we have a bit of ways to go until we reach the facility."

Nick heard the sound of air pressure being released as the car ahead released it's brakes followed by the sound of the grinding metal of the cart starting to pick up speed. He matched their actions and soon was in close pursuit making sure to watch for any track changes.

He didn't relish the thought of being lost down her wandering until he starved to death. He had no idea how far below Zootopia he was or where the hell he was.

This was the first remote break in the case in almost a month. How could these guys have kept everything so quiet for so long? He could see how they had been able to move unseen by accessing these ancient tunnels, but how could no one anywhere have not talked.

When Nick and Judy had been working on cases they generally found the best way to know what was really going on was shaking the branches in the form of all the low life and scum (Nick's former compatriots) and seeing what fell out. Someone always talked. Always. There were not many crimes committed in Zootopia that the streetwise cons, deadbeats, homeless, runaways, thugs, gangs, pimps or other lowlifes didn't know about. There wasn't much else interesting to talk about on the streets so this kind of information was always golden.

Except in this case. No one had heard Nuttin' as that weasel said. If he hadn't been so pissed off and upset about them taking Judy he would have been very impressed with these guys… these Covenant. What the hell is The Covenant anyway? Sounds like a gang of some sort, but he had never heard of them. They must have deep pockets to pull all this off, but what was their end game? To what purpose? Grabbing smaller mammals and even a cop and making them disappear? Didn't sound like any profit in this game that he could think of, but they must be into a much bigger con than he could imagine. When he was doing his thing, he would avoid cops at all cost. It was better to just lose the mark than risk getting caught. He had lived by this rule and it had kept him safe until he had pressed his luck that day at the Jumbeaux's Cafe when he walked the tight rope with the Meter Maid.

How was he to know she was a real cop? If he had known the truth, he would have just dropped it and left. Nick chuckled to himself thinking how full of himself he was that day. He felt untouchable. Damn he missed the times like those when he was scamming with the best of them. Scamming a bunny meter maid, oh man how his friends had laughed at that later that day after he described the whole scene.

"You even got her to **pay** for it?" His friend Teddy had remarked. "Man Nick you are just the **best**." He remembered everyone laughing. He got a bunch of free drinks with that story.

Nick got a sad feeling thinking of Judy. Of how mad he had gotten her and the things he said to her that day. He had long since apologized and they now talk about that day fondly, but he still remembered how angry, hurt and sad she had gotten. How her spirit had seemingly been broken.

But what she had done after taking all that punishment is what made him love her. She didn't give up but instead got even with him. Nick chuckled at that. For a bunny to get even with him at his own game was… well it was just not done. Judy was like a ball. The harder you threw her down, the higher she would bounce back up.

Thinking about her just got Nick pissed. These Covenant, whoever they are, took the wrong bunny that is all he knew. And she better be found and soon or they were gonna pay and pay big. He still worried about what the weasel had meant when he said she was _lost._ He just hoped that same weasel was leading him to her now. No matter what happened, the weasel was going to give up the answers one way or another. Of that he had no doubt.

After about thirty minutes or so Nick thought he heard the brakes of the car ahead and applied his brakes to match. He let himself glide while pumping the brakes to slow down as quietly as possible. They were approaching some kind of factory or construction site of some sort Nick guessed. They were still underground, but he could tell this was some industrial site as he could see large power lines and construction type equipment and saw some 'Danger' signs. He heard the other car coming to a halt and he did the same before he could see the platform they must have stopped at.

"All out… mutton and furry white meat."

"Furry white meat?'

"Well damn they need one for rabbit meat damn it. How about bunny brochettes?"

"Not really funny dude. I feel sorry for these guys."

"Ah fuck 'em. They all been pains in my ass. Self righteous little pricks. They deserve whatever's comin'"

"Man you got a lot of hate built up in you. I've known some rabbits that weren't half bad."

"Damn softy… well thez guyz ain't gonna be botherin' me again that's certain."

Nick heard the sound of something being loaded on a cart and wheeled away. Nick quickly jumped out of his cart and followed the gruesome twosome. They weren't very hard to follow as they didn't seem to care about how much noise they were making and his nose could locate them from far away. That weasel needed to spend some of his ill gotten money on hygiene.

As he got deeper and deeper into the facility Nick realized this wasn't a construction site but looked to be a power plant of some sort. He saw a lot of generators and transformers and a heck of a lot of "Danger Electrical Current" signs. He didn't know much about electricity, but was guessing this must be one of the Zootopia power plants. He knew they had a hydro electrical plant up near where he and Judy found the missing predators over a year ago, but figured this must be another power plant for Zootopia and the surrounding areas. It made sense as the power generated by the one plant would probably only be a small portion of the massive amount of power needed for a city the size of Zootopia.

Nick didn't know much of anything about power except the lights came on when you flipped the switch and how to disable an alarm if he needed to. He figured the two jokers ahead of him knew even less. What the hell was going on here? Nick hoped he could find Judy in this maze. He heard the cart ahead start to slow as the wheels began to squeal in protest, and he moved forward in case the two tried to make an quick exit.

He saw them approach a door and knock. A face on the other side looked down at them from a glass panel in the door. It looked to be some kind of cat… a panther or tiger maybe… who opened the door requesting, "Bring them on in… and be quick about it… we're on a tight schedule."

Nick heard the weasel grumble, "Yeah yeah always rushin', always hurry this and hurry that..."

They wheeled the _package_ into the room and he heard it close shut and lock. Nick quickly rushed over to the door and peered inside.

The door had a rectangular vertical window with a kind of metal mesh inside the glass so that if the glass was broken it still would prevent anything from reaching inside or a small from entering the room. Glancing inside he saw a wall of cages. The weasel and raccoon then started removing the bunny and sheep's clothing and personal belongings and tossed each into a separate plastic clear container and sealed them. They then got some thin white devices which appear to be two semi circles attached by a hinge and connected them around the victims necks to form collars. They checked that the collars were securely fastened tugging on them. Then the two of them picked up the victims one by one and put them in separate cages and locked the doors.

He saw the two then head to the door each holding one of the plastic containers holding the belongings followed by a… jaguar he could see now… and he quickly slipped to the side of the door.

"Damn never seen a naked sheep before… pretty weird dude. Thought they would be covered in wool down there." He heard the raccoon say as they opened the door.

"I wanna know how dem rabbits are makin' so many babies when their dicks are so microscopic. That guy wow..." The weasel responded.

"Guess it don't take much to make a girl bunny happy." The jaguar joined.

"Obviously." The weasel stated.

Nick wanted to strangle all three of them for talking about rabbits like this. He probably would have joined in on this kind of talk before he met Judy, but once he met her and her family his opinion on rabbits and most prey animals changed so drastically. He imagined Finnick would have just started beating them to a pulp. The fennec had really grown close to the Hopps family and was very defensive of his new friends. The guys Nick used to hang out with and still did on occasion knew better than to say anything negative about rabbits when Finnick was around now, or they would have problems eating for a week. The thought of these guys doing the same thing to Judy... Nick quickly had to go to his happy place like Nangi had taught him before he lost it.

The three of them headed up a hall and Nick quickly stepped from around the corner lightning fast and wedged his foot in the door just as it was about to close. Nick slipped into the room and now saw eight medium sized cages against the wall on three large tables. The middle two contained the sheep and the rabbit both naked and wearing the white collars he had seen earlier. They appeared to be completely unconscious.

Nick checked the cages and found both of them locked. He thought he might be able to pick the locks but to what end? Even if he got the animals out of the cages and wheeled them back to his rail cart and then somehow loaded them inside, he was unsure he could find his way out of the facility and get them to freedom. The other problem was as soon as they saw the prisoners were gone, these Covenant would lock down the entire area and be on high alert.

He had to know what was going on at the facility and where Judy and the rest of the mammals may have been taken. If he rescued these two, he was not going to find anything else out. Nick sighed. This went against any instinct he had as a ZPD officer, but he was resigned to leaving these two innocent victims as they were, but promising he would rescue them as well as the others as soon as he knew more. He tried to call Bogo, Clawhauser or anyone, but there still was no signal. He was unsure if this was due to being underground, all the electrical currents in the area or some kind of cell signal blocking technology being employed. Whatever the cause, he was not going to get a call out unless he found a working landline or something similar.

Nick quickly left the room heading up the hall following the trail that the gruesome twosome and the jaguar left. Fortunately his nose helped him pick up the path quickly, and he soon found the three heading into a brightly lit area a short distance from the prisoner cells.

Nick had to hang back for fear of being observed and slowly crept under some railing in the shadows to possibly find out what was going on. He could see a great deal of activity in the area. A bear and panther were loading a flatbed vehicle with large rectangular black cases and some small black boxes. A fox got into the vehicle and drove it away. He could see a building next to where they had been loading these boxes, and could see several mammals having a meeting of some kind as one was pointing to a board on a wall with a stick. He make out several forms listening raptly to the presenter.

Nick decided he needed to find out what was going on at this meeting and slipped around the side of the building. In a small room he passed he could see some lockers of some sort and decided to take a quick look inside and found some blue uniforms like he saw the fox and the others wearing. They had no insignia on them except for a metal pin that said C on the shirt collar. Nick quickly donned a fox sized uniform and headed toward the building he said seen.

On his way he almost ran into a mongoose and barely grazed him.

"Hey watch it bud! You guys think you own this place."

Nick quickly recovered from the shock. He had been focused only on getting to the meeting and cursed himself for not paying attention to his surroundings. But Nick was a former con and he could flip the script anytime.

"Many pardons my liege." He declared bowing low to the mongoose placing one arm across his belly and the other flared out to the side. "I meant no harm to one so delicate as you. How may I be of service?"

The mongoose looked a bit stunned for a few seconds before grinning, "Ah man... you guys. Funny. Always keeping us on our toes with your jokes. Where ya headin'?"

Nick pointed his head toward the building with the meeting, "Late".

The mongoose swept his arm forward, “Well I won't keep you then. Put in a good word with the boss for me if you have a moment."

Nick performed a normal bow at the waist, "Would be my pleasure, m’ lord." And took off quickly toward the building.

Nick slipped into the back of the room as silent as the night and found a place in the shadows behind the others gathered where he could observe the board which appeared to have a large map and a list of names on the left.

A lion was pacing and leading the discussion at the front of the room and about twelve animals including a skunk, he could definitely smell him, a lynx, a coati, two otters, a meerkat, a boar and a couple others on the other side he could not identify all had their rapt attention at the front of the room.

"Okay Collins you need to get the shipments to our people in the staging areas C, D and E." The lion indicated locations on a map of Zootopia and the surrounding areas with his stick. "We should be ready for the operation in a day once we get delivery of the serum."

"Sir, how do we know the serum will work?" A badger in the front queried.

"Well they said it seems to work on all the species they tested, and they haven't been wrong about anything yet. If they want their three containers it had better work."

"How can we be sure it will work on only our targets and not... well us?" The skunk inquired cautiously.

"They said they were very careful to make sure it would only target those we specified." The lion declared.

"Is there an antidote in case something fucks up?" The lynx boldly challenged.

"Yes. Of course we are getting a supply of antidote as well. We need that for Phase II anyway."

"Ah, I forgot." The lynx admitted sounding embarrassed.

"No… all questions are welcomed and we can not leave anything to chance. You need to know everything in these dossiers backwards and forwards. We are on a strict timetable and all agents in the field need to be ready to move as soon as we get the serum and distribute it. Is there anything else?" The Lion asked in conclusion.

"Well then let's get a move on and good luck to everyone. May our way be open. May our freedom be true." The lion recited in a sing-song fashion of a slogan repeated numerous times before.

"May our way be open. May our freedom be true." The rest of the animals repeated in unison.

The animals began gathering their booklets and stood up heading toward the door. Nick knew he had to get access to one of those dossiers but how?

He spotted a sheet sized notepad on the ground and quickly picked it up. The meerkat in front of him had turned to one of the otters, and they were discussing something about air pressure settings for maximum distance when he used his best slight of hand to deftly snag the booklet beside the meerkat and emptied the contents and replaced them with the notepad all in one single motion. If anyone hadn't been staring right at him, it would have appeared as if the folder and sheets only shook a tiny bit and then went still.

Nick quickly folded the papers and stuffed them down his shirt. He slipped around the back of the chairs and followed in step behind one of the other otters and a boar walking through the door and heading down a main causeway. He was about to make a break down a side path when unfortunately his beautiful tail must have given him away as he heard someone yell.

"Fox! Yeah you… "

Nick's heart skipped a beat but he had years of dealing with situations like these. He responded as coolly as possible with his best con smile…

"Wassup?"

"Who are you? Hadn't seen you around before." The badger he had seen inside the meeting say questioned.

"Jeff. Jeff Redtail. Was supposed to be driving a truck to someplace in Gopherville." (one of the places Nick had seen on the board)

"Redtail… isn't that a bit on the nose?" The badger needled.

"Well, guess my ancestors weren't the creative types." The clever fox smirked.

The badger laughed, "Well guess you can't help that. The garage is down there on the right." The badger pointed down a pathway where Nick had seen the bear and panther loading the truck.

"Thanks." Nick exclaimed with a big smile. He then added, "May our way be open. May our freedom be true."

"You got it!" The badger replied, "Good luck to you."

Nick wasted no time and hurried off toward the garage in case the badger was still watching him. He needed to find a place to hole up and go though some of this information so he could try and makes sense of all the craziness he had seen. What the hell were these guys playing at? It looked like they were preparing for an invasion. An invasion of what he wondered? Nick also needed to find some way to call out from this place. There was just so little he could do against an army by himself. He hated to admit it, but he really needed Chief Buffalo Butt right now.

Nick finally found what appeared to be an abandoned office. He opened the door to the dark office and sat down at an empty desk and turned on a soft desk light partially the light with his coat so anyone outside would not notice. On the desk he saw a phone and he got a big smile on his face until he picked it up and realized it was dead. Oh well, time to study he thought to himself as he starting going through each page of the dossier he had _liberated_.


	20. Can We Meet?

Mia Kinsey was a brilliant scientist, however she made sure anyone around her knew that first and foremost. She had no patience for stupidity or nonsense. She would have been described as mousy by most who knew her unless she was discussing a topic near and dear to her heart. During those times she would become quite fierce and forceful. She was slightly shorter than average with a pale complexion, fine features and straight dark hair of medium length that covered her face half the time. Under that hair was a pair of piercing blue eyes that looked wise beyond her twenty-six years. She was lean but not terribly athletic although she did try and keep herself fit. She would have been considered quite pretty if she didn't have a frown or a worried look on her face most of the time.

Mia was considered a super transcendental genius with a multidimensional perspective, polarity thinking and integrative mindset with a complete understanding of higher dimensional physics and philosophy. She had doctorates in Applied Astrophysics, Bio Mechanics, Nuclear Engineering and Practical Solid State Quantum Theory. Currently she was hoping her work in the study of anti gravity would lead to her being the youngest female recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Mia had no patience for all the male scientists trying to impress her with their knowledge and aptitude. She knew she was smarter than all of them put together, and had no time for boys acting like apes trying to show who was the fittest mate. She had even less time for ordinary men as they bored her completely. She had one relationship in her past with an older professor, but it had been mostly platonic and had soured her on men completely. Men were so insecure and needy and she didn't have time to deal with them.

She had been bored, as she usually was, when she had been contacted by some people in one of her pet organizations she had supported from time to time and had been a bit intrigued by their request. It sounded quite far fetched, but she figured it would make for a good anecdote to discuss among some of her colleagues so she told them she would accept the call to discuss it further.

The phone rang a minute earlier than scheduled. Good. She liked punctuality. She answered the phone, "Mia here, don't waste my time."

"Hello, Mia, this is Drew... Drew Stevens. I believe you were expecting my call."

Great, this guy was wasting her time already.

Mia responded curtly, "Of course. What did you need?"

"Ummm… my compatriots discussed what we needed with you earlier?"

"Yes, but I thought they were trying to put me on. Why don't you tell me again directly."

"We need someone who can operate a multi-dimensional wormhole device and can send organic beings back through to a parallel or alternate timeline or alternate dimension intact."

"Oh, why didn't you say so. Sounds boring. I have been doing that exact thing for the past five years. Why don't you ask me for help with something actually challenging." Mia stated with a sarcastic acidic tone. Man these guys are definitely having a laugh at my expense.

"Dr. Kinsey, I am serious. I had sent some of the specs over to you. Did you not get them?"

"Oh I got them. But the energy requirements are impossible for what you sent. Pretty good theoretical work though. Did William Howe do those, or was it Dr. Walters?" Mia had to admit the work looked almost legitimate, almost. The mistake they made was not accounting for the power requirements and the physical stresses. Also there was nothing about how to protect organic matter to survive passing the dimensional event horizons.

"Didn't I send the specs for the He-3 power generators. I believe there should be more than enough power. Also there is a massive smart grid for storing energy until enough is accumulated for opening the dimension and transferring organic and non-organic material."

"Mr. Stevens, I saw that data as well, but it is useless without the fissile materials. Now please tell me who put this together. I am quite impressed. I didn't think any of them had the balls to try and put one over on me after the last two times."

"Dr. Kinsey I am serious, this is not a joke. We… I mean they have the material to make this fully operational. The data I have shows multiple transverse attempts between dimensions. Can the organic matter be transferred in both directions?"

Mia was getting annoyed. Surely this had gone on long enough, but they were really pushing it. She decided to bring this to a halt one way or the other.

"If this is so what makes you think that matter has been transferred between the dimensions in the first place?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. That got them, she said to herself with a smile.

She then heard a response she didn't expect.

"Because I am looking at one of the organic beings that was transferred right now. Dr. Kinsey... Mia… please I need to get her back home."

Mia was an expert at reading people and she was especially an expert at reading guys bullshit. Apparently whoever this Drew was, he was sincere and sounded desperate. However he may just be completely insane. Theoretically this was a million times more likely than the possibility he was telling the truth, but she was intrigued. She could not deny that.

She paused thinking of what to say to this insane person.

"Dr. Kinsey are you there?" She heard a worried voice ask.

"Yes, yes I am here. If what you are saying is truly real. I would need to meet this being and need to be convinced what you are saying is actually true. If you or they can't convince me you are telling the truth then I can't help you."

Mia heard some muffled voices on the other end of the phone. It sounded like a female voice. She probably gathered this Drew might have a split personality and was talking to himself, or he has someone else involved in his delusion. It sounded like there was an argument that went on for a few minutes. Finally she heard a hesitant voice.

"Fine we can do that. I don't think convincing you will be the problem."

"Good meet me at my office at Jefferson Thermodynamic Labs. I will have a pass waiting for you… and your 'friend' at the front."

"Dr. Kinsey, I am afraid we will need to meet somewhere more private."

Mia did not want to meet a potentially insane person without having security close by.

"I am sorry, but it is at the lab or no go." She stated flatly.

"The problem is that my… friend… is potentially a wanted fugitive, and it is very possible that I may be as well. I do not want to risk her safety, and her presence would present some problems that would be very difficult to explain."

Interesting Mia thought… Now this doesn't sound boring for a change. Intrigued she said, "Go on."

"You are warranted to have some trepidation meeting me under highly irregular circumstances, but I am sure you will understand once we meet why these methods are necessary."

"Mr. Stevens, I am not sure why you or your organization are contacting me anyway. " Mia responded in an annoyed voice. "I have only donated several small sums to you from time to time. I am only concerned with the mistreatment of animals by some scientific organizations that have skirted government oversight. I have no idea what this has to do with what you are wanting to discuss with me, and I don't agree with most of the tenets of your organization. Humans have earned the right to have dominion over all the creatures of the Earth. But with power comes responsibility as well. I am not want to discuss such matters with the hippies, vegans and general granola types that make up most of your constituents."

There was a long pause as Mia waited for the diatribe of bohemian love and peace that was about to come through the phone. Surprisingly she heard a very calm voice on the other end.

"Dr. Kinley, Mia, not all members of our group are as stereotypical as you have suggested. We have quite a variety of different opinions. I am a computer technician who has stumbled into something far above my expertise while investigating the very same abuses which you profess to support. You are one of only two experts I could find that could possibly understand what is occurring at the facility in question, and the other is highly likely to be involved in the conspiracy itself."

Mia was now very curious. Apparently whoever this was had done their homework.

"Who was the other scientist?"

"Dr. Kenneth Luxor."

Mia had heard of him. Most of his work was classified, but what she had seen and what she had heard were quite impressive. The last she had heard, he was doing some highly confidential work for DARPA and had not been seen in over a year. Her curiosity finally got the best of her and she decided she had to find out more.

"Fine, you can meet me at my home. I am sending you an encrypted map. I trust you will be very discreet and not reveal this location or any other information we have currently or will discuss."

Mia heard this Drew answer, "Of course, I would expect the same of you. "

"Fine, meet me at ten AM tomorrow. You and your compatriot have five minutes to convince me of your veracity. If you fail to do so in that time period, I will contact security and have you thrown out or arrested."

"Of course Dr. Kinley, we will be there. I will bring the data to support my additional suppositions."

With that the call ended.

Mia instantly regretted setting up the appointment. This Drew sounded completely insane, but she knew he was telling the truth or what he believed to be the truth. The mystery was too much for her to resist. She hoped this computer technician wasn't counting on just this to snare her in and lead to… to who knows what. Her mind ran through about two thousand possibilities. But the tiny probability of him telling the actual truth was just too much to pass up.

* * *

"I don't like it." Judy was exclaiming as soon as Drew hung up the phone.

"How do you know we can trust her?" She continued in a worried tone.

"Judy, we don't have much choice. We have to convince her to help as I don't know how else we can get yourself and any other of your fellow mammals back. We might be able to force the people working there to help us, but it is far too risky and the potential for them to double cross us is too high. At least if we have our own expert, we could verify anything they told us or we would have a chance of using the system without any other assistance completely."

"She doesn't sound like a very nice human."

Judy had been listening in. Drew had allowed her to sit next to the phone and listen to the entire conversation. With her hearing, she heard the conversation even better than Drew had and he had the phone up to his ear.

"Judy, she is a scientist. A brilliant one. From what I have found the more brilliant the scientist the more eccentric and irascible they can be."

"Well help me pick out something very professional to wear then. I think I saw something in the pile of new clothes you brought that should work.”

Judy picked out a professional looking navy blue business suit. What the hell this was doing at the Baby Gap was beyond him. But he had grabbed it as soon as he saw it because he thought it may remind Judy of the ZPD uniform she had mentioned on many occasions.

Drew was never one to care about clothing or fashion. The more comfortable the better was his opinion. He usually was dressed in jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt, but he did not want to dissatisfy Judy so he pulled out a pair of khaki slacks, loafers, a blue button down shirt and a red tie with blue designs on it.

He sighed sounding frustrated, "I just don't understand women sometimes. Whether they be scientists, waitresses or even bunnies."

Judy reacted defensively, "Hey, what did I do?"

"Oh you didn't do anything. I just never know the right thing to say. I always seem to mess up any time I talk to a woman. I was very afraid I was going to mess that phone call up."

"I thought you did quite well considering. She didn't sound at all like what I had expected."

"What do you mean?"

"Well from the videos I have seen, human females seem to sound very sexual and make ooohing and ahhhing noises. They dress is these sleazy outfits and like to stick their mammary glands and large butts out at male humans and touch these parts making soft noises."

"Judy what the hell videos are you talking about? Oh… the music videos. That is mostly for entertainment. Normal human females don't act like that."

"More entertainment like the porn sites? Is this the only thing that entertains human males? What is the obsession with the mammary glands? Aren't those used to feed baby humans? They seem pretty strange to me and seem to come in all sizes but the human males I see seem to be obsessed with them in any size."

"Judy this is very difficult for me to explain. I am not exactly sure. Maybe human men like them because they represent a females level of fertility. Possibly it has to do with some kind of latent connection to their mother as a baby. I am not really sure. Different men prefer different sized breasts and some men are more attracted to other female body parts."

Judy decided to stick some apples under her shirt and prance around room imitating some of the music videos she saw touching the artificial breasts and making ooohing and aaahhing sounds. Then she said in a teasing tone, "Do you like these?" As she flashed her eyes at Drew and smiled in what he supposed was her imitation of a seductive pose.

Drew got a sick look on his face, "Good Lord, **No!** Judy. That looks... just… **Weird**!" He then realized she had been teasing him and he got a smile on his face, "Okay, you got me."

Judy took the apples and tossed them back into the fruit bowl and laughed at him, "I don't think I will ever understand humans. How could something like that make human males dumb and irrational?"

"I don't know Judy. Some things just are… built into our biology. Haven't you used that cu… I mean adorable little fluffy tail of yours or those lashes to get a male animal to do something you want them to do?"

Judy got a disgusted look on her face and exclaimed, "No way! I would never do that."

"No female mammal does that in Zootopia?" The human questioned raising his eyebrows and tone.

Judy thought about it, "Well there are some who do. I have seen vixens do it. And some cat species. Maybe even a few bunnies. But they don't act like your human females do touching themselves in their private areas and making oooohing and aaaahing noises though. They purr and might rub up against the male, or act in a more subtle way to attract the male."

"Judy we need to find some other videos for you to watch besides music videos. Normal human females don't act that way. Well never around me..." He grumbled to himself.

"I thought you said they didn't act nice?"

"No, what I said was I just didn't understand them. I never said I didn't like them. Maybe I like them too much and that is why I get so nervous and screw everything up."

"Well you don't seem nervous around me." Judy countered.

"Well I think you forgot my wonderful non-stop foot in mouth... messing up everything I said when I first met you. I guess you have gotten to know me better and I have gotten more comfortable talking to you since we have been doing so almost non-stop for a many days."

"I guess they just need to know you better like me." Judy told him with a smile.

"Well maybe there is hope for me yet. If a talking rabbit from another dimension or time rift doesn't totally hate me then maybe there is a remote chance for me."

Judy laughed at that, "I never expected I wouldn't totally hate you either."

"Now what if this Mia person looks like she might be a danger to us?" Judy warned in a cautious tone. The moment of levity was over as Judy got her serious ZPD face on.

Drew responded, "I think I have a few ideas on that. How many pockets does that suit of yours have?"


	21. Humanity, Is it really so bad?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a fun little chapter about Judy finding out some things she liked about humans. It is sort of like a sorbet cleansing the pallet before we get into all the intense stuff. Enjoy.

Drew and Judy had prepared everything for their field trip tomorrow with Mia the scientist. Judy was a bit apprehensive but excited at the same time. She hadn't been outside the room since… she didn't even remember getting there so… ever. This was exciting but very dangerous. She hadn't really met another human besides Drew. He was so different than any of the Zootopians she knew. This Mia sounded a bit of an irritable sort. Judy decided to take her mind off the meeting and think about something pleasant for a change.

Drew had exposed her to all kinds of amazing things humanity had to offer she didn't have in Zootopia. Of course there was this internet she was using which was a marvel. They had communication in Zootopia but it was mainly telephone communication and sharing of apps not all the variety she found on this Earth internet. There was **SOOOO** much information.

She also loved the clothes. She never really cared about clothes and fashion, but Drew showed her how to search the internet for any style she wanted and she could order them and have delivered the same or next day. She had some friends that would have had a seizure thinking of all the shopping options you could find _online_ as Drew called it.

And there were the foods. Drew had picked out all the favorite foods he knew rabbits on his Earth loved the most and she has sampled them all. Some of them she was familiar with as they had these in Zootopia, but many of them were totally new. He also brought her many things not on the normal rabbit diet and she tried many of these. He said he was very careful not to pick up anything containing something called _byproducts_ or chemicals. Drew tried to stick to raw fruits and vegetables with the main exception being the different juice varieties he found for her to drink. She loved the blends of different types of fruits and vegetables as they created a whole unique taste nothing like the individual items that made up the juice. Drew kept writing down which items she preferred and made sure she was well stocked with good things to eat and drink. Drew seem to pay close attention to anything Judy liked about humanity and would make sure she got to experience it the best she could considering their current circumstances.

One of these she particularly enjoyed was all the different types of music. She loved sampling all the different styles and genres. They were fairly limited on Zootopia, but apparently with Earth being so large there were endless varieties and styles. Drew had tried to limit her from watching music videos with what he called _improper female role models_ after her little performance with the apples and so he limited her a bit from watching videos in a few genres like rap and hip-hop as well as many county and pop videos. She really liked some of the many silly ones and wondered what Nick would think of the one called "What Does the Fox Say?" She could just imagine what Nick would say about that one. She imagined Nick would say those guy are morons that's what the fox says. She also liked one called "Chick Chick" with humans and animals acting very silly. She liked any videos where animals and humans seemed to be having fun together even if they were something called animated which Drew says was using a process where computers could create images and make them act like they were moving. She loved the songs she could dance to and would jump on the bed and dance like crazy and get Drew to dance with her while he danced on the floor so they were closer in height. Apparently he was open for any excuse to make her feel happy to counter the serious nature of their real life activities.

One genre of music she really came to love was called classical. The music was so relaxing and emotional. It could make her feel like she was floating or it could make her feel like she was in the middle of a thunderstorm. Drew said he wished he could take her to see a live performance as it would be a totally different experience and he said he didn't have the speakers to do it justice in the small room but he got some very high-end headphones for her and she loved to close her eyes and lie back on the bed and immerse herself in the wonderful music.

Something else amazing was something humans called movies. These were videos that told giant stories like a play which she was familiar with, but instead with amazing scenery and backgrounds. Some of them had crazy things like explosions and monsters and impossible views which Drew said were something called _Special Effects_. She had been concerned by some of them at first until Drew convinced her it was not real. She had been terrified that monsters and aliens were rampaging outside the door while they were inside the room. They seemed so real like a news report, but he said they told a story. He said not all stories were realistic and that humans like to fantasize about all kinds of things. There were many dramas between humans and some were so sad. Drew tried to steer her toward happy ones and not what he called ‘chick flicks,’ but she liked the ones that made her feel emotional. Drew would just shake his head at her and say _women_. She saw many movies that had animals talking. She asked Drew about this and he said it was all special effects. Some of the animals looked so realistic. Drew mentioned something about a big budget whatever that meant. Apparently humans liked talking animals from what she could tell, but he assured her that if they actually saw one they wouldn't know how to react.

She also loved all the many books and literature. She wished she had time to read more of them, there was so much to explore. She could spend her whole life just trying to read a tiny amount of all the books she found. She also loved all the different types of art. She took things called _virtual tours_ of human museums both exploring art and science. Drew kept saying how he wished he could take her to the real ones, but she enjoyed the ones on the computer. She appreciated many of the ones exploring ancient civilizations and cultures as well as ancient history about something called dinosaurs that lived so long ago… millions and millions of years ago. She could not imagine anything that ancient but it was all fascinating. She wondered if Zootopia had the same dinosaurs roaming that long ago in the past. She believed that they did, but that they just hadn't discovered them. There were many science exhibits. She like the ones about the history of the planet and how it was created. Almost everything about this Earth was the same as her world it seemed except for humans. Drew said he theorized that she lived in a different parallel world or possibly in a time well before or more likely well after humans lived. He said he thought it was most likely a parallel reality, but that it could be possible she lived in a time in the future long after humans had destroyed themselves and had died out. Judy got sad thinking about humans dying out and then realized she didn't hate humans so much anymore. They had many faults, but they had many beautiful things about them she enjoyed. She then thought about these humans wanting to invade and destroy Zootopia and she got angry again. Drew said he was not exactly sure what was going on, but she knew her world was in grave danger and that the humans were involved.

It was after she had been watching some animals that she asked Drew why the humans did not eat the animals she saw in the movies where they talked. She had seen many movies and videos where humans did kill and eat the other animals. These disgusted her so much she had to watch them in extreme moderation. Drew said humans did not eat any species they felt were intelligent like dolphins, apes or talking parrots. They also did not eat animals that were closely bonded to humans like dogs and cats… or pet rabbits he added. He said there were always rare exceptions, but that it would be very unusual. He told her that there were rare circumstances where humans would eat other humans although most of that happened a long time ago. Judy felt nauseous thinking of any rabbit eating another rabbit. That is the most disgusting thing she could possibly think of… well with the exception of someone harming her Zootopia. She had wondered if humans were going to invade Zootopia in order to eat the citizens, but apparently from what Drew had explained, the humans would have no desire to eat highly intelligent talking animals. That made her feel a little better. He said most humans would love to meet Zootopians and visit their wonderful land, but he didn't think Zootopia would be better off with humans visiting there. Judy agreed as some human ideas were extremely counter to the Zootopian way of life, but she supposed some humans would be able to live in peace and harmony with Zootopians just as prey and predator did now.

Judy asked Drew if humans were predators or prey. He thought about it for awhile and said he was not exactly sure humans fit nicely into either category. While humans did hunt and eat animals they also were hunted for food in their past by many species of predators. He said in a few places tigers would still hunt humans for food. Humans apparently now had killed most any predators that were a threat to them, but in the past they had been prey just like her ancestors had been.

Judy's mind swam with so much information and so many contrasting ideas. Everything was so alien to her yet there was so much that was exciting and beautiful. She then thought about this Mia and other human females she had seen in these movies. They seemed so much different than she was. Drew seemed to be very nervous around them, but she seemed to gather he liked them in spite of that. She decided to ask.

"Drew, do you wish I was a human female?"

"I kinda wish you were Wonder Woman... would make things a whole lot easier for us." Drew quipped.

Drew had been trying to show her positive female role models after Judy's whole music video _misunderstanding_ and they had discussed Wonder Woman among many other examples.

"Drew I am serious." Judy exclaimed more earnestly.

"So am I." Drew responded.

Judy puts her paws on her hips and gives him one of those _you better take me seriously or I will strangle you_ looks that indicated she meant business.

He thought about it for a couple seconds and responded seriously, "No Judy, being a rabbit is part of who you are. It is part of your identity just as much as you being female or being a Hopps. I would not change anything about you."

"Now would I change what happened to you?" He continued to postulate.

"While my knee jerk reaction would be to say yes, I wish this never happened to you. Once I think about it. I say no."

Judy was shocked and hurt and she showed it. How in the world could he think that?

"You wanted me to be **hurt** and **tortured** and **lost**?" She said as her ears drooped and tears started forming in her eyes.

Drew quickly responded seeing her reaction, "No, **of course not!** But have you heard of something called _The Butterfly Effect_?"

Judy shook her head no.

"It is a popular hypothetical example of chaos theory which illustrates how small initial differences may lead to large unforeseen consequences over time. In the example if you were to go back in time and killed say a butterfly..."

"Who would kill a butterfly? That is terrible." Judy said with a disgusted look.

"By accident then. You accidentally killed a butterfly not watching where you were walking. It says that by doing this you could bring about large events such as the death of an entire species." Drew explained.

"How could that happen?" Judy asked wondering.

"Well say a particular lizard only survived on those butterflies and without the butterfly to mate and produce offspring, it had nothing to eat and could not feed its young so it died out. And lets say a snake lived on eating those lizards but then it could not feed its young and died out... etc etc..."

"So tiny changes could have huge effects." Judy marveled with a wide eyed expression.

"Exactly! If you were never sent here, I would never have met you. But also we may never have discovered the threat to Zootopia. If say you had been sent here and were never harmed, but instead were sent to a nice... say farm to live and munch on wonderful foods and live a happy life. Again I would have never met you and we would not have discovered this danger to your world. Only by the circumstances and events we both endured did we get to the point we find ourselves now."

Judy thought about this for awhile and finally responded, "You know, you think too much."

Drew quickly acknowledged, "You aren't the first to say that."

They both fell on the bed laughing uncontrollably.


	22. When Judy Met Mia

Judy was so excited to finally be out of the motel room. The room had felt nice and safe while she had recovered from her injuries learning and experiencing everything she could about this strange world she found herself in using this strange new _internet_. But being outside again felt so good. She was used to living on a farm and being outside all the time. She had essentially been trapped in small spaces over a month and had not seen the outside in that entire time.

She was apprehensive as she checked the pockets of her new blue suit to make sure her little surprises were in place in case this Mia turned out to be untrustworthy. They could not take any chances as what was at stake was too great.

She was very grateful for this large vehicle called an SUV that was so high off the ground. She could see all around and with the tinted windows she didn't have to worry about being seen. They had a journey of over an hour so she spent her time watching all the scenery. The humans had these large highways like Zootopia although not nearly as scenic. She was used to the quiet sound of vehicles but here apparently these vehicles used something called fossil fuels which were the remains of plant and animal life from millions of years ago. Apparently this stuff made the vehicle rumble as perhaps it had some kind of metal stomach that digested these fuels and caused it indigestion.

She saw vehicles of all sizes and asked Drew why there were so many different sizes if humans were all roughly the same size. He told her that the trucks obviously were larger to haul goods, but that humans liked to have variety and some families were larger than others so they needed larger vehicles.

She spent part of her time talking to Drew and part of the time listening to music on the digital musical device… an _i_ _pod_ Drew had called it when he gotten acquired it for her. It was very similar to what they had in Zootopia, almost identical. She wondered how their cultures were so similar on so many things. Drew didn't have an explanation for this which was a first for him.

She was starting to get nervous meeting someone new who she didn't trust and who could potentially threaten her life and the opportunity to save her world. Drew apparently sensed her tenseness and discomfort and touched her paw gently with his hand to reassure her it was okay. She felt better but she still felt so nervous.

"Relax and be yourself Judy. I am sure she can't help but like you. I couldn't imagine anyone not liking you." Drew said gently.

He continued, "Now me I am sure she will despise. That is a forgone conclusion." He chuckled at that

"Why are you laughing, and why do you think that?" Judy asked curiously.

"Oh it is just based on past experience. Maybe I will just ignore her and talk to you instead." Drew glanced at her grinning.

Judy saw what he was doing trying to put her at ease. It helped a little bit. They were entering a community full of large houses. Everything was quite green. There was a large fence surrounding all the homes that was so large she could not see the ends, but imagined it must surround the entire area. There were large bushes and trees on the inside of the fence which blocked off the view of much of the homes from the outside.

"What is this?" Judy quiered.

"This is a gated community. If you are wealthy enough you can live in a home with a neighborhood protected by a large fence and security. It protects against theft and those who want to harm or bother you. But essentially it allows you to control who can come and visit you." Drew explained.

Judy didn't think this was very friendly or welcoming. The metal fence reminded her of a prison yard.

They were coming up to a building with two paths, one going into and one coming out of the fenced community, and she could see guards in uniforms, cameras, and a metal gate blocking traffic from entering or leaving in both directions.

"Time to get down." Drew whispered. And Judy hopped into the back and lay down behind the seats and covered herself with a blanket Drew had brought.

She heard Drew roll down his window, "I have a pass to see Dr. Kinsey."

She heard a beeping sound and heard the guard respond, "The pass is good for an hour. Please leave by this time so we don't have to go hunt you down. Dr. Kinsey can extend the pass if she calls the front gate."

Judy listened for awhile as Drew drove about a minute and then she heard the large vehicle sputter and come to a stop.

"Judy, they have cameras everywhere in this community so we are going to have to get ready in the car." She heard Drew inform her.

Judy climbed inside a large meter long gray duffel bag careful to not mess up her suit. She wanted to look professional and not ruffled. She zipped up the bag leaving the zipper about half an ear from the end so she could see out a little bit and could breathe fine. Drew placed a laptop in one end of the bag and some paperwork and a tablet in the other. She heard him get of the vehicle and close the door with a solid thud, and then open the back door. She felt him pick up the bag and sling it over his shoulder.

"Umph!" He exclaimed, "Have you been putting on weight? I think you have been eating a bit too much making up for lost time. Am I gonna have to put you on a diet young lady?"

She chuckled at that, "Jokes... oh now you decide to start a career in comedy. How about just making sure you don't drop me. Rabbits may be soft but the ground still hurts."

She heard him walking up to the end of a walkway and heard a chime sound.

* * *

Mia was examining some of the research and running some calculations from the data this Drew Stevens character had sent. Mia liked to be fully prepared for any meeting even if it was with an insane person. Curiously a lot of the calculations she was running checked out if she accounted for the fissile material. Additionally some of the designs she was examining also seemed to account for stresses she had earlier been skeptical of as long as you accepted the unique properties of this new material they were utilizing. She still did not see any evidence that would account for protecting organic material from the high levels of energy or radiation. She was distracted by a buzzing sound on her phone and glanced at it to see that her appointment had entered the security gate. She had enabled a panic button in her pocket she could click to automatically call the guard station for help should she need it.

Mia stood up and ran her hands down her off white Proenza Schouler asymmetric button-front-2-in-1 vest and skirt to remove any wrinkles. She checked her black turtleneck blouse to make sure it was situated correctly and got close to the mirror to make sure her makeup and eyeliner looked clean. Mia wore minimal makeup, but she liked to use just enough so it looked like she was not wearing any but looked absolutely fantastic. Mia smiled to herself thinking _If I am going to die I am going to look spectacular doing it_.

She heard the doorbell ring and checked her monitor in the upper corner of the doorway alcove which displayed a dark haired young man with a large gray bag over his shoulder. He did not look dangerous, but that didn't mean anything. She breathed in and did a relaxation exercise blowing out slowly and opened the door.

The young man who looked to be about her same age smiled hesitantly and looked down a bit uneasily fidgeting. He definitely seemed apprehensive, but not dangerous. She supposed if she were him she would be nervous as well.

He gently shook her hand informing her, "Drew Stevens. It is great to finally meet you."

He had a tense smile on his face. It was pleasant but slightly forced. "Mia" She responded and directed him into the living room. She peered out the door, but did not see his companion outside or in the vehicle although she could not see anything inside the vehicle with its tinted windows. She checked her outside monitors and even rewound the video surveillance footage quickly, but did not see anyone else exit his vehicle. How curious she thought. She found the visitor waiting in the foyer for her, and escorted him into the her living room inviting him to sit down in a white Christopher Guy leather chair with gold accented wood.

She noticed he placed the gray duffel bag he was carrying down as if there was a bomb inside it and sat down in the chair with his hands in front of him. She hoped there was not a bomb in it as she had just had this room redecorated, and it would be a shame to replace everything. It took six months to finally get everything to furnish the room. She laughed to herself worrying about the potential devastation from a bomb blast.

She looked across the room to the apprehensive young man. He looked attractive enough. Not exactly G.Q. material, but he looked far better than all of the scientists at her work facility. With a stylist, fitness trainer and some effort, he wouldn't be bad at all. She cleared her head and went into her business mode.

"While I appreciate promptness, getting here five minutes early will not buy you additional time. You have five minutes starting now." She set a timer on her tablet. "Now where is this friend that you were supposed to produce or are you wasting my time? Are they an invisible being? Did traveling through the dimensional vortex alter their visible light spectrum so they are invisible to those on our dimension? Or are they a temporal distortion which will appear and disappear at will?" Mia questioned in a bit of a frustrated annoyed tone as she furrowed her brows.

The young man Drew, fidgeted a bit taken aback by her harsh tone.

 _Good_ Mia thought. It is always good to throw them off balance at the start.

The young man finally responded hesitantly, "Dr. Kinsey... she is not invisible. She is right here. I just thought we would exchange pleasantries first before..."

"I don't have time for pleasantries or people wasting my time!" Mia angrily interrupted and put her hand in her pocket holding the panic button in her hand with her thumb on the trigger.

The young man let out a sigh and looked down at the bag and spoke to it softly, "Are you ready?"

 _Curious_ , Mia thought, that voice intoned extreme affection. She supposed if she played along with his delusion and was nice to this object of his adoration, she would not be harmed by this lunatic.

She heard a soft voice seemingly emanating from the bag, "I guess." Followed by and barely audible, "She scares me."

Mia did not see this Drew's lips move. He must be a very talented ventriloquist or he has a diminutive _little person_ in there.

The young man stood in front of the bag in between herself and it, and she heard the bag unzip and saw him extend his hand to apparently help something out of it. The could just make out a barely audible sound hitting the floor. He turned around and said in a regal sounding voice, "May I present Miss Judith Laverne Hopps of the Bunnyburrow Hopps."

She saw him chuckle at a joke of some sort. But Mia ignored the joke and instead stared at the strange sight that met her gaze.

There was a small gray animal with long gray ears dressed in a dark blue business suit standing on its back two legs giving her an apprehensive smile and waving at her hesitantly. The creature seemingly uttered the words, "Um Hi!" She started to press the panic button but passed out first.

\--

When she came to she found herself seated in a chair and heard two voices talking.

"Judy, I told you that humans are not ready for talking rabbits. They can't handle the reality of it."

She heard a female voice answer, "But so many of your movies show them all the time."

"Well there is movie reality and reality reality." The male voice explained.

She heard the female voice ask in a troubled tone, "Do you think she is alright?"

Mia opened her eyes and found the young man Drew and the gray creature... a rabbit-like creature? Looking at her with very concerned looks on their faces.

"Dr. Kinsey, are you alright?" The young man asked. "I couldn't think of any other way to introduce her to you without it coming as a bit of a shock."

The rabbit-like creature extended its paw and stated matter-of-factly, "Hi Miss Kinsey, Mia, my name is Judith Hopps." It paused for a few seconds then continued, "If you would agree to help me you may call me Judy."

Mia was a bit confused but gently shook the extended paw in her hand.

"I hope you can now see why we couldn't visit you at your office." The young man, Drew explained.

Mia still was in a bit of shock and she nodded her head. She finally got her wits back about her and slowly stood up and started walking around the rabbit-like creature. Then she put her fingers in its mouth to open it up wide and peered inside staring intently in its mouth.

"Hhhheymmmph!" Judy said with her mouth full of fingers.

Mia took her fingers out and exclaimed, "Fascinating!"

Judy spit the taste out of her mouth, "Blech!"

Drew had a distressed expression on his face and stated sharply, "Miss Kinsey, I assure you she is quite real. Please refrain from sticking your fingers near her. She is a person. Not something to be poked and prodded like an experiment."

Curious, Mia heard the Drew person actually sound quite upset. So he does have a backbone.

She looked at the gray creature for awhile and asked, "You are a rabbit? How is that possible?"

Judy looked at Drew and he waved his hand indicating that she had the floor.

Judy responded, "Yes I am a rabbit, but not a rabbit like the rabbits you have from here. I am from… someplace else… called Zootopia. As far as how this is possible, I was hoping you could help us answer that."

Mia looked up at the young man.

Drew then explained his theories about Cryodyne and DARPA and the facility outlined on his tablet screen connected to all the He-3 generators. He gave an abbreviated version of what they had been through and his numerous theories about what was happening at the facility and the potential threat to Judy's home.

Mia sat for awhile considering everything and finally responded,

"While most of your theories are possible, we would need more evidence to determine exactly what is happening at this facility and the role Cryodyne and DARPA in this potential assault on this Zootopia. The collars, small cages and unclothed nature of the test subjects suggest that only those at higher administrative levels may be aware of what is being done to these… alternate beings."

"Is there any possibility the government of Zootopia is complicit in sending the test subjects to our Earth?" Mia then queried.

Judy immediately responded emphatically, "Absolutely Not! Zootopia would not kidnap innocent civilians and send them to be test subjects for torture and mutilation. How could a government do that to its citizens? Maybe your human governments would do something like this, but never ours. But what would be the point? Why would our government use yours to experiment on its own citizens attempting to unlock our genetic makeup for some unknown purpose?"

Mia paused, "Your logic is valid Miss Hopps. It does not make any sense. This is a great mystery and I love mysteries. " She got a satisfied grin on her face. "Finally something that is not boring. I have dreamed of finding a true enigma. The pieces are all here, we just have to put them all together. Now let's go over this new data you brought."

Mia, Drew and Judy examined the new data and created a chart of all the possible theories and supporting evidence on the large white board in Mia's study. Mia called the security at the entrance and extended their pass indefinitely, and offered to house them while they discussed all the details. Fortunately Drew had foreseen this might be a possibility and had packed overnight bags for an extended stay. Mia had to cancel a lot of plans, but she cleared her schedule for several days while Drew unpacked the bags.

When Judy was in the other room relaxing on a sofa listening to some music, Drew privately opened a discussion with Dr. Kinsey.

"Miss Kinsey..." Drew started.

"Mia please…" Mia corrected gently.

"Mia, do you think it is possible you can send my friend… Judy… back safely?"

"You are very worried about her, I can see that. Honestly it looks like there is power capacity and sound technology to do so, but I still don't see how we can protect her from the forces at play during such a transfer." Mia said in a soft tone.

"Wouldn't they have had to have some kind of means to do that when they initially transferred them here?" Drew asked hopefully.

Mia answered, "Logically it would make sense, but I do not like to work with such suppositions. I like dealing in absolutes."

"Well isn't a good part of your work theoretical?" Drew countered.

"True but I can't give guarantees with the evidence presented." Mia stated.

"Well assuming we find the means to shield the passengers for the transfer at the facility. Could you get Judy and any other Zootopians home?"

Mia paused and then continued, "I believe so, but you are forgetting one large missing component. How are you going to get us in there? They are not going to let our little group just sneak into one of the biggest kept secrets in human history."

Drew responded tentatively, "I have some friends that can help with that, but I needed to make sure we had your assistance or getting into the facility would be pointless."

"Sit out of potentially the greatest discovery of our history? I think not. Your furry friend is cute and all, but honestly the science is far more motivating. "

Drew gave Mia a mistrusting look.

Mia continued, "Oh I know what you are thinking. You are concerned I do not have your furry friend's best interests at heart and would hand her over to the government. Well logically this does not make sense for several reasons. I do not have any ties to said government. I have supported animal rights for years. The government already has multiple test subjects according to your information. I want to get my hands on this technology for my own curiosity. And finally you have no other choice but to trust me if you want to get her home and find out what is actually happening at the facility or her home dimension."

After a long pause Drew sighs and assumes a somewhat defeated pose, but then continues in earnest tone, "I concede the point. But while she is only a scientific curiosity to yourself she is my friend, and I am not sure I could bear to see her come to any harm. She is an amazing, fascinating, intelligent, brave and warmhearted person who I have come to admire and love. Please help me get her home and help save her people."

Mia knows sincerity and this is the most sincere thing she has ever heard.

"I will do all I can." She answered in a heartfelt tone.

..

In the other room unseen to the two parties, a large gray ear has been standing at attention pointed in the direction of their room and discussion. Some sniffling sounds can be faintly heard emitting from below that ear.

 


	23. Last Piece of the Puzzle

As Drew approached the gated complex in the SUV, his eyes became blurred as sweat had begun to form on his brow and had now gotten in his eyes. He was apprehensive about meeting his old friend Colonel Richard Hanson. Rich had been a navy SEAL as well as an operations officer in the British SAS. He currently led a special mercenary unit which did work around the globe subcontracting to various countries. Essentially if a country wanted deniability they would contract with his team to do the messy jobs that had the high possibility of political fallout.

Drew had done work for this group frequently in order to make enough money so he could be free to donate his time to helping his pet project B.A.D. The jobs paid well and he was at minimal risk since most of his work involved simple remote access reconnaissance and data mining. Drew accessed information the group used in order to execute it's missions. It wasn't glorious work but it paid quite well.

He felt apprehensive leaving Judy with Mia, but he had no choice. It was far riskier taking Judy here, and he had to trust Mia to take care of Judy and not report her to the authorities. He was worried Mia only saw Judy as a lab experiment to study and exploit for scientific knowledge, but he knew Judy was capable of protecting herself, and he had made sure she was armed and ready if the need should arise. He had texted her before entering the complex and she had texted him back all was fine. She had found a swimming pool in Mia's backyard and was enjoying playing in the pool while Mia worked. He had texted concerned she would be seen by the cameras in the area and she responded it was fully shielded from outside eyes as Mia had said she liked to go _au naturel_ many times. She didn't know what that meant. Drew responded that meant naked. Judy texted back naked humans looked weird and no wonder she didn't want cameras to see her. Drew laughed to himself and texted her he was going into the facility and all cell phone communication would be lost while he was inside. She texted him a final "Good Luck".

He had passed several checkpoints and had been waved through, and he now was approaching the main facility gate. There was a station just before you got to the side of the mountain with several security barriers in case of any bombs or explosives. He parked outside of the entrance and walked into a processing facility where he was body scanned. His phone and any electrical devices were taken and held by the guard at the entrance and stored until he left. He told the guard he would need access to the computer he brought as it had operational data on it. The guard called for approval and apparently this was granted so he was given back the case.

Apparently the building had been an old cold war military base hidden in the side of a mountain designed to withstand a nuclear attack and any fallout. Rich must have done some amazing _off the books_ jobs for some general somewhere in order to be given this place for his own personal use. Most likely it was just to keep him quiet about some of the more unsavory work he had done. Drew knew better than to ask about any of the details on any of the jobs he had done. The less he knew the safer he was. On many of the jobs he had quite a good idea what was done based on the information he gathered and news from the region a short time after his research was completed. He didn't question a lot of the work as it was necessary to protect the new changing world. Fighting terrorism and subversive groups was very dirty work. Sometimes the work involved spying on both allies and rivals. It was a complex world and information was key to proper decision making.

Drew passed three more security checkpoints and took an elevator down to the operations center. He was escorted into a small room setup for mobile presentations. He hooked the computer into the display system and made sure it was working properly. The room was designed for multiple simultaneous computer screens and displays as well as video screens showing real time satellite and video images. He hooked into the computer into a 170 inch Samsung SUHD that was absolutely gorgeous. They had three of them in this one small presentation room. Their work must be paying damn well he thought. He thought of Judy watching her movies on this setup. He got a smile thinking of how frightened she had gotten seeing the horror and sci-fi movies on the small LCD TV in their room and imagined what her reaction would have been seeing them on this.

Drew got bored after twenty minutes and started playing the new Doom and relaxed blowing up the many aliens on the Martian _hellscape_. If he ever made any real money he would love to have a screen like this for games. Drew became so involved in blowing up monsters especially with the immersive surround sound system, he didn't notice the door open and was startled to hear a voice behind him say, "Well if we need to do any mass destruction on an epic scale we know who to call." Drew stood up and turned to see his old friend and employer standing in the doorway smiling.

Colonel Rich Hanson was every bit what you would expect. He was a muscular imposing man of around fifty years old with a military cut of mostly white head of hair peppered with some black and a white neatly trimmed beard and mustache. He wore a blue camouflage uniform and had sunglasses in his pocket. This was unusual since they were deep underground. He had a warm smile and was someone you would feel quite comfortable around as long as he was on your side. But you could also tell that he would be a terrible enemy and someone to fear if you happened to be on the opposite side of a conflict.

Drew stopped the game and stood up and went over and embraced his old friend. He hadn't seen him in almost half a year as the Colonel had been out of country during the times he had done work for The Unit as they were called. He smiled and thought of how wonderfully ambiguous it was to call your organization The Unit.

"Good to see you Colonel. It has been too long. I am afraid I wouldn't be much good in a real firefight as I would probably wet myself and be quivering at the first sign of trouble." Drew admitted with a smile.

"Ah, don't sell yourself short son. Just think of it as a video game and you will be fine. A video game where you don't get a re-spawn I grant you." Rich responded with a laugh.

"Oh that makes me feel great!" Drew grinned and laughed as well.

The two of them sat down and caught up on what each of them had been doing over the past six months. It felt good to just relax and shoot the shit with a friend after the past three weeks of undercover work and now being on the run from the government and Cryodyne. It almost felt normal until after ten minutes Rich broke the idle chit chat asking,

"So what was it you needed help with that was so important you had have me fly into the mountain (This is what Rich called the main facility) and meet under our highest security?"

Drew knew to get right to the essentials and not butter up this veteran. The colonel appreciated that.

"I need you to get me and two associates into a top secret government facility for an undetermined amount of time." Drew stated flatly.

Rich got a smile on his face, "Good one…." Then once he realized Drew was not kidding he whistled, "What the hell have you gotten mixed up in boy?"

Drew started up the presentation and gave the Colonel a brief description of what he had been doing at Cryodyne and the information he had obtained from the facility. He glossed over the fact that Judy was a rabbit but only said she was a prisoner he had found. Drew also did not dwell on the fact that this was a dimensional travel device and tried to be as vague as possible concerning anything theoretical and only discussed the facility and actual data found.

Colonel Rich sat back leaning in his chair with his hands and arms folded behind his head thinking for awhile and then leaned back forward, "There are a few things I believe you skipped over or most likely intentionally left out. I understand more than anyone the need to only tell the client what they need to know, but I do need to know a few things first..."

Drew nodded for him to go on. The Colonel continued.

"What is your skin in this? Why are you willing to risk your neck? You are a bit of a coward… I know it hurts… but it is the truth… this is completely out of character and not remotely in your comfort zone, in fact the complete opposite."

Drew sighed. This was going to be tricky. It was so much easier with Mia as she didn't really question anything and she didn't know him so well like this old grizzled veteran. He sat for a moment trying to figure out what to tell and what not to tell his old friend.

* * *

Drew thought back to how they had met. About ten years ago Drew had been caught hacking into one of The Unit's remote servers. He had no idea it was their group. He had only been playing around with various exploits and had found a very interesting target with some of the best security he had ever seen, far better than most government agencies. He had spent several weeks trying to figure a way around the system and finally discovered a hidden backdoor using an ancient 300 baud modem he had found still connected to the system for some unknown reason. One of those relics that get forgotten he imagined. Once he remotely gained access through this backdoor he created several accounts into the system and then used them to gain access through the main system. He had found his way around all the anti intrusion routines, but apparently he had missed one he had never spotted before that had taken the form of an encapsulated virus in a subroutine. He had used a laptop with multiple spoofed connections far from his home but apparently somehow they located him.

He was grabbed off the street in a black van and found himself in a holding cell underground somewhere.

He realized that this was not a sanctioned government organization as the entire procedure was strictly illegal and covert. All his demands to contact a lawyer and anyone at all were ignored.

Finally after holding him and ignoring him for several days, he was ushered into a black room with a couple bright lights, a table and two chairs. He was told to sit in one of the chairs and his restraints were removed and he was left alone. After about five minutes he estimated, the door opened and the imposing figure of Colonel Richard Hanson had entered with an unreadable expression on his face. He sat down across from Drew and finally in gruff flat voice.

"So you are cause of all my technicians pain and grief. You don't look like much kid. Well regardless, who do you work for… CIA, NAV, MSS?"

"Ummmm... I don't work for anyone sir." Drew said hesitantly.

"Yeah I know you don't. What do you think our guys were doing these past few days? We even talked to your date to the prom. She was not very complimentary… not lucky in love I see." Rich continued.

"Seriously? Who the hell are you guys? You're not CIA, FBI, NSA or any law enforcement agency obviously. Your system was hard as shit to crack. My prom date, really?" Drew shuddered… that night sure didn't go well. In fact he thought he would rather be in here with this guy than live through that fiasco again.

"Well, tell you what. You want a job? We could use some talented people like yourself. As long as you can keep your mouth shut and don't ask too many questions and explore where we want you to… I think we can have a mutually beneficial partnership." The Colonel offered with a slight smile on his thoughtful face.

Drew had no idea what to think of this, but these guys interested the hell out of him. They had stuff he had never seen and he wanted in.

"Um, sure, sounds good. Hey you don't have one of those devices that erases people's memories do you? I could really use one of those for that prom date you mentioned." Drew asked wistfully.

Rich chuckled at that. You know he thought… I am beginning to like this kid.

* * *

Drew thought… and I have been working for them ever since here and there. Rich had become almost like a father to him as his own father had been absent most of his life. His father had wanted a son who wanted to play football and wrestle. He had wanted someone with which to go camping and hunting and do outdoorsy things. He remembered how proud his father was bringing home a truck full of animals he had murdered in the woods for stuffing and skinning – deer, bear, raccoon, rabbits, skunks even a couple squirrels he was especially proud of being able to hit. Drew shuddered thinking of that. What his father got was pretty much the opposite and had ended up giving up on him and ignoring him after the age of eight. But Rich had not cared about any of that, and had accepted him for who he was. He saw talent and encouraged that talent. He accepted his peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. He had no problem with his work for B.A.D. and encouraged him to pursue his passions whatever they may be. He never judged and had always been there to for advice or just to listen.

It wasn't that he didn't trust him with the information about Judy and her complete situation… it was that he didn't know how he would take it. He was afraid Rich would finally think he had finally stepped off the deep end. Or that he had been exposed to some kind of chemical or virus while at Cryodyne. Drew had a few people he knew that he could talk to about conspiracies and crazy theories, but he knew Rich was a very practical person and not one to speculate. Not that he judged, but convincing him of what was almost impossible for himself to believe would be almost inconceivable.

He knew he had to come up with some half truths to convince him of his veracity,

"While at Cryodyne I discovered they have been doing extreme experiments on animals. The amount of cruelty and inhumanity they exhibited were almost incomprehensible. What they are doing with this information is even more troubling. They have been performing genetic experiments in an attempt to possibly modify or kill thousands or even millions of other animals."

Drew showed Rich all the research that had been done with the genome and genetic manipulation. He knew Rich wouldn't understand the intricacies of the research. In fact it had taken himself a very long time to discover those conclusions while examining the results for days, but that the documents would support what he was describing.

Drew was a terrible liar, but he had learned that if you tell a half truth you could tell it with enough conviction so it would be believed. It was not false. It just wasn't the complete truth.

He went on….

"In addition in conjunction with DARPA, Cryodyne has been experimenting with a massive power system for the manipulation of energies, and somehow using this research in what appears to be a nefarious plot to possibly cause harm to animals and potentially many humans as well. The people I need to get inside this facility understand this plot and wish to understand and hopefully foil any harmful actions they may be planning or currently undertaking."

Drew hoped this would be enough to convince his friend. He knew Rich could tell he was very upset by what was going on and hopefully this would convince him of why he was taking such a risk.

"I can sense that this is extremely important to you. I can also sense there are a few details that have been left omitted, but I trust that you have your reasons for this." The Colonel stated.

"It's just difficult to explain." Drew admitted.

"Very well I will sanction the operation, and have people draw up the plan immediately, but you just created quite a massive debt with The Unit. And I already have something you can use for a down payment." The Colonel stated very seriously with a grim expression, and handed Drew a folder.

Drew looked through it briefly, "This is going to take a bit of time…"

Rich countered, "Well planning a mission on this scale in a single day will take an entire staff and a massive amount of resources, so you better get to work on your project."

"I need to contact my associates to update them so they can get ready." Drew declared.

"I will take you to a secure station so you can contact them." The Colonel offered.

Drew couldn't believe things were finally happening. There was so much to do but he knew The Colonel's staff would take care of all the logistics. Drew had found the diagrams for all the electrical systems in the entire facility and knew those could be used to bypass most all the security stations requiring key cards and code entry stations. It is the human security that would have to be planned for as well as surveillance, entrance and egress plans, contingencies, communication, various equipment and weapons needed among countless other considerations.

He finally got a secure line and called Judy except Mia picked up the phone.

Drew: "Hello?"

Mia: "Drew this is Mia. Judy is in the tub. Apparently several hours of chlorine and chemicals from the pool do not do well with her fur and skin as it made her dry and itchy. She is using that special shampoo and conditioner you got her. I suppose I should have thought about that before letting her swim. I have no idea how you keep everything straight for her special needs in a human world."

Drew: "Mia, please don't tell her this but it helped having a rabbit as a pet and knowing their special needs. When you have a pet you just subconsciously think of their custom needs when you buy them food or medications or bath products or other products they use. I understand she is an intelligent self-aware person but she is also a rabbit. Or at least a close approximation. I hope your bathroom is not near you right now because she would strangle me if she heard I even remotely thought of her like a pet."

Mia: _chuckl_ _ing_ "That is very amusing. I imagine it would be very difficult not seeing the rabbit side whenever you saw her. Why are you concerned about me being near the bathroom?"

Drew: "I have learned never to underestimate her hearing. Her rabbit radar is quite impressive."

Mia: "Well I think you are okay as she has some music on in there."

Drew: "Well let her know everything is on for tomorrow night. I will be stopping by my motel to pick up everything we left there and then picking both of you up and taking you to the staging area."

Mia: _curious_ "Why are you not coming back tonight?"

Drew: "I have to help with some planning and I have to do a good bit of work to to help partially pay for this little outing. I hate to think what this thing is going to cost."

Mia: "I see…. You have quite a bit invested in this project. In more ways than one I assert."

Drew: "What do you mean by that?"

Mia: _smugly_ "I will keep my conclusions to myself. Will you be calling again?"

Drew: "Tell her I will try and text her later tonight. I will call when I am en route tomorrow."

Drew disconnected the secure line and headed to a workstation in the communications section of the building. The Unit had many such rooms where any access to the outside would have the signal relayed all over the globe so that the source of their work would be impossible to detect.

The job he had been assigned to help pay for his little mission was not a simple task. He was required to locate the funds of several terrorist organizations. Then to hack the banks and find the accounts for each of these groups. Finally he was to transfer the funds to multiple of The Unit's holding companies he was assuming. The most difficult part was the last where he had to make it look like the source of the hack was hidden, but had just enough evidence so anyone looking hard would believe the breach source was an unknown organization in Dubai. He knew better than to look into this organization or try and question any of the work. This was going to be the most subtle and most complicated hack he had ever attempted, and he didn't have a lot of time in which to accomplish it. Fortunately they didn't expect him to accomplish this alone. He had three other operatives who were in the lab already attempting to follow a series of fund transfers back to their multiple sources. They would help with most of the brute force work. He was there primarily for the more subtle touches.

He had been working on this for over six hours and had lost track of time. He realized he had forgotten to text Judy as she would probably be worried. He needed a break anyway. He went to a room with secure communication and sent her a text saying…

Drew: "All is well. Just finishing some work. Hope you feel better. I apologize for not thinking about the chlorine. Will call you later tomorrow."

He had to be careful what he sent in this form as it was not scrambled. He nodded off for a couple minutes and heard a reply.

Judy: "Feeling butter not your faucet."

Drew laughed to himself. Judy must have had the phone by her bed so she could hear his text and woken up when he called and was still half asleep and got _auto corrected_. Damn he hated auto correct sometimes but it sure made for some funny messages.

Drew: "Read the message you sent me. [Laughing Emoji] You're cute when you're still asleep."

Judy: [Tongue Sticking Out Emoji] "You know what I meant. Don't call me cute." [Angry Emoji]

Drew: "Can't be helped needed a laugh. Different kind of cute btw take no offense."

Judy: "You're right" [Apology Emoji] Too sensitive sometimes."

Drew: "All good. Get rest big day tomorrow. Will call in afternoon."

Judy: "You need rest too. Able to get any?"

Drew: "Not much can't be helped. Hopefully can finish in time to get a couple hours."

Judy: [Sad Emoji] "Rest amayc"

Drew: "Will try."

Drew thought about something.

Drew: "Everything seem good with M?" [Worried Emoji]

Judy: "Seems okay." [Thumbs Up Emoji]

Drew: "Good keep eye out"

Judy: "Will do. Good Luck."

Drew: "Thanks."

Drew signed out. Well good to hear she was alright. Time to grab some energy drinks and finish this bitch of an assignment.


	24. Light at the End of the Tunnel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finnick and Tala have been waiting so patiently for us to get back to their part in all of this. This seemingly mismatched pair are quite the team. Who says Nick and Judy get to be the only fox and bunny team?

In the darkness there was the sound of chattering. The sound was echoing off of the walls and you could imagine visions of skeleton's bones making the sound as they marched out of the darkness stalking the strange pair of mammals. It was at this moment that Tala realized that the sound she heard was her teeth chattering not skeletons. Tala was cold, so very cold and her fur was wet. She so wished she had brought her flashlight. Down here in pitch blackness the sounds echoing all around made her amazing hearing a disadvantage as it made it impossible to pinpoint the source of any sound or what could be making it. She held on tightly to her friend Finnick as he guided her through the murk. Fortunately he was not completely blind and could make out just enough to keep them from tripping and falling down onto these rails that apparently ran across to their right.

According to Finnick's description, they were in an ancient cavern that may have been a subway system possibly a hundred years ago or more and appeared to have long since been abandoned. When they had arrived down at these tracks, Finnick had no idea which direction to take the pair, but Tala just _felt_ they were going in the right direction. She was not so sure as when she _felt_ where Judy had been taken, it was just a deep sense. She believed that the problem lay in the fact that most likely Judy was unconscious during her entire trip down in these tunnels and sewers. Speaking of sewers, the smell made her want to vomit. She hated to think how bad it was for poor Finnick with his much more acute sense of smell.

Normally he was one to complain, but he was being unusually quiet which was quite worrisome. They had no idea how far these tunnels ran and they could be lost underground for possibly days and days. It was not a comforting thought as the blackness, cold, and stench from the adjacent sewers made this the most miserable adventure imaginable. When you thought of adventure the thing that pops into your mind is rollicking fun and the discovery of all kinds of new and interesting places, animals and smells. In her books the adventures have strange exotic locations and heroes, exciting plot twists and an evil villain or villains which you could vanquish. This adventure had none of those things. She supposed Finnick and herself were the heroes, but neither felt very heroic as both were absolutely miserable. This was the most depressing location possible and nothing exciting had happened for four hours unless you count her slipping and almost twisting her ankle or breaking a bone. If not for Finnick's quick action, she was sure this would have been the case. There was no evil villain anywhere. She really would have loved to have found one. It would be better than this endless emptiness and darkness. This was certainly not like the story books.

Tala felt so frustrated. Here she was on a grand adventure to save her big sister, and now she was going to end up having to be rescued herself except that no one knew where she was. Just like Judy. She wondered if this is how Judy felt being lost and alone in a dark strange place where no one knew where she was. Except that Tala had Finnick with her and Judy was alone. Judy had been in such terrible pain and torment and fear and hopelessness for weeks and weeks. Tala had none of that. It had only been several hours down here in the dark. Tala was absolutely miserable and hopeless and yet her sister must have felt a thousand times worse. How could she have stood it? Tala understood now why Judy had wanted to die. Tala felt tears start to come to her eyes as she thought of this and prayed her sister had somehow survived.

Tala was about to start a full on cry when Finnick came to a sudden halt and she crashed right into him almost falling over top of his shorter form. "What..." Tala started. Finnick hushed her. She could feel his head and ears turn to the right toward the way they had come.

He whispered, "Stay right here."

Then she heard it a few seconds after him. The sound of metal wheels. About thirty seconds later she saw a faint light coming down the rail tracks the way they had come. It gradually got brighter and brighter as a metal chug chug chugging sound got louder. She was about to call out to Finnick when she thought better of it and froze in place. She then saw the light come around a bend in the tracks and then all she saw was white and she was completely blinded.

Tala heard a sound from just ahead of her as the light passed by followed by a thump and then a voice yelled "Owwww!" from off to the right on the opposite side of the tracks. The train car moved on a bit and then she heard the sound of screeching metal so loud… she instantly pushed her ears down and placed her paws over them as tightly as she could as she thought her ear drums might burst. The screeching finally stopped and the tunnel was silent except for a slight electrical humming sound. Tala took her paws off her ears and tried to open her eyes, but all she could see was a white and blue glow. She closed her eyes for a minute and slowly opened them. She could see a light from about 50 meters ahead and the outline of a small electric rail car with two seats in the front and a large square area in the back with an ear length rail around it. There was no barrier around the seats as they were in the open air.

She was startled by the sound of Finnick gently grabbing her and whispering, "I have an idea. Play along." Tala nodded and the fennec began to gently tie up Tala's paws behind her with some nylon rope he must have had stashed on him. He also tied up her feet. She noticed it was tight enough to hold her paws in place, but she could easily get out of the bindings if she needed and slide the bindings off her feet in seconds. Finnick led her over to a figure on the ground and pushed her down on her side next to it.

"Don't move or I'm smack you again harder next time!" Finnick yelled using his mean voice. Tala realized this was his normal voice but he never used this voice around her.

Tala figured out quickly Finnick's game and started whimpering.

Finnick pulled the figure up off the ground. It was a fairly young coati a good bit older than Tala but still probably only around nineteen or twenty.

"Sorry friend, didn't mean to knock you off. Was trying to hop on for a ride when this piece of shit...” He points to Tala. “...tried to stop me and knocked me into you. Phil Fen… you are a sight for sore eyes."

Finnick extended his paw and shook the confused coati's paw.

"Coco." There was pause. "What are you doing down here?" The coati questioned.

Fin: "Bringing this piece of fluff...” Nodding his head towards Tala “...to headquarters. What do you think?"

Coco: _confused_ "Why aren't you on a car?"

Fin: "Damn thing wouldn't start. Am gonna be in so much trouble."

Coco: "Why didn't you call for backup?"

Fin: _sighs_ "Forgot the damn thing."

Coco: "Well grab the walkie from on top of the car."

Fin: "K. Keep an eye on this piece of filth for me."

Finnick makes a fake jump in Tala's direction and Tala recoils in terror whimpering.

Tala sees Finnick climb up onto the car. Her rabbit ears pick up the crunching sound and snap of something metal and plastic and she hears.

Fin: "Motherfucker! Piece of shit is broke!"

Coco: _worriedly_ "What?"

Finnick comes back carrying the walkie.

Fin: "See for yourself – damn transmit button is not working. Might have gotten hit when this fluff butt pushed me."

Finnick whacks Tala with his bat. He barely touches her but Tala responds as if she had gotten smacked.

Tala: _pleading_ "Owwww! Please no more. I didn't mean to I promise."

Fin: "Sure just like the time you didn't try and crawl away."

Tala: _whimpering_ "Was scared."

She forced her nose to quiver and she shivered in a fetal position on the ground. The shivering part was not hard. She was still quite cold.

Coco: "What the hell is she doing awake?"

Fin: _grinning evilly_ "Ah tha boys wanted a live one to have some fun with."

Tala was really amazed at her friend's ability to come up this stuff on the fly. He must be one hell of a smooth operator in the streets of Zootopia. She knew Nick and he had been con artists for years and watching a master at work was a special honor.

Coco: "Ah damn… good idea. We need a bit of a distraction with all the serious shit happening. But she doesn't seem like she can put up much of a challenge."

Fin: "She has some speed. We can untie her legs and chase her around the room. Also it is fun hearing her pitiful whimpering when you do something like this."

Finnick yanks on Tala's tail.

Tala: _pleading_ "Owwwwwwww! Stop… please no more…. "

Tala whimpers curling up into a tight ball and starts to sob. Damn that tickled she thought to herself. How does he make it look so rough and yet feel like nothing? She gave her friend mad props.

Coco: "Yeah, I guess I can see your point. Well get her onto the back of the car. You think she will try and fall off the back once we get moving?"

Fin: "I'll tie her to the guardrail. Besides she knows that if she tries anything like that, I’m gonna start breaking bones."

Finnick whispers to the Coati right in his ear incredible softly, "We'll be getting to that soon anyway."

Coco: "Ah… okay… well load her up."

Fin: _forcefully_ "Get up long ears. Hop!"

He kicks her until she gingerly stands and tries to hop over to the car with her feet tied together. He keeps kicking her until she gets to the car and pushes her up to the step near the front of the car. She carefully hops up each step with the fennec angrily grumbling behind her. Finnick pushes her down onto the back of the car and starts to put a piece of rope through the bindings of her paws and feet securing her to a rail just behind their seat.

Tala lies in a ball on the flat of the car and whimpers.

Fin: "Dumb ass bunnies. Can we get a move on? I am late as shit as it is."

The coati cautiously climbs up into the drivers seat and starts the rail car.

Coco: "Sure sure… they really hate it when you aren't punctual. Hope you don't get in too much trouble. Last guys I knew who were late didn't come out so good." The coati said this statement with a worried tone.

Fin: _grumbling_ "Well just hope fluff butt is worth something to them."

The trio headed off down the tracks with Tala hanging on tight to the rail. She didn't relish the thought of actually falling off this car as she might actually break some of those bones Finnick was referring to.

The trip was long and she noticed they switched tracks and paths many times. She thought of how fortunate she was to have had Finnick to pull something like this off otherwise they could have been stuck down here wandering until the end of time. The train kept going for forty minutes or more with Finnick throwing insults her way from time to time. They were moving at quite a fast pace. How far out of Zootopia are they going she wondered.

Finally she hears the sound of the brakes and covers her ears immediately. Fortunately this time it is a much more gradual braking as she sees they are approaching some kind of station. She feels the car slow to a halt and hears the coati say, "Ah finally here now…. "

Whap!

She hears a loud sound followed by the coati flopping down next to her with his face right in front of her with his eyes white and his mouth open with his tongue sticking out.

Finnick unties Tala and helps her up.

Fin: _deeply_ _concerned_ "You okay little one? Didn't hurt you did I?"

Tala: _reassuringly_ "Nahhh just tickled me is all. You are amazing."

Fin: _impressed_ "You were pretty amazing yourself especially for a first timer. I woulda sworn you were a pro. You know once we are done with this… ah what am I thinking? Nick and Judy would kill me for sure."

Tala: "Well let's just get Judy back and then worry about our future partnership."

She gives Finnick a big grin.

Fin: "Got that right. Now let's figure out where the hell we are."

They tied a makeshift gag around the mouth of the coati and then tied his two paws and his two feet together and then tied all those to a metal support pole out of the way in a dark corner. Tala made sure he could breathe okay.

Tala: _compassionately_ "He really wasn't a bad sort. He never touched me or even looked at me wrong. He just seemed scared by whoever his bosses are."

Fin: "Well he got mixed up with the wrong guys. He is gonna have to pay the price for that. We'll pick him up later once we can get a hold of some help."

Fin: "Now the problem I see is if we run into any more of those guys I can't just have you hopping around next to me. Don't think they are gonna buy that. Apparently the bunnies and most likely all of the missing mammals they bring in are unconscious. So figure I need some way to wheel you around and you get the hard job of getting a free riding tour of this lovely... whatever this place is. I think it is a power plant of some kind based on all the high voltage danger signs and power lines."

Tala: "Well I could use a rest. Walking around these tunnels for hours in the dark didn't do me any good."

Fin: _Grumbling to himself_ "Well didn't do me much good either."

The two searched around until they found a flat cart that would fit Tala. She hopped up top and laid down pretending to be unconscious while the little fennec wheeled her along. Both of them kept their expert ears alert for any sound.

They had passed a couple rooms and saw a couple that had cages when looking through the glass windows but did not see any prisoners or captors. The fennec stopped as he heard the sound of someone running their way from the direction in which they were heading. There was no way for him to get out of view without looking suspicious so he slowly moved the cart forward hoping that they would just pass him by. Unfortunately they had no such luck.

A jaguar came running at a jog and almost collided with the cart. Finnick saw Tala flinch and yelled, "Watch it!" to draw the jaguars attention away from her movement. It worked fortunately but unfortunately it also caused the jaguar to stop and stare down at them.

Jaguar: _stunned_ "What the fuck?"

Fin: "Sorry man, you came outta nowhere."

Jaguar: _looking at Tala_ "What the fuck is this thing doing here? I didn't hear anything about any more transfers."

Fin: "Last minute thing. Sorry."

Jaguar: "I see. Well what the fuck is it doing clothed? And where’s its collar?'

Fin: "Ah sorry man no one told me. New here."

Jaguar: " **Obviously**. You don't even have a uniform on."

Fin: "They didn't have one small enough."

Tala thought _damn how does he come up with responses that good and that fast_. _What the hell did the jaguar mean by transfers and what is the deal with them being naked and collared? What the hell was going on in this place?_

Jaguar: "Well that makes sense. Hadn't seen anyone else… your size."

Fin: a _ngrily_ "Heh! What do you mean by that! I do the same amount of work as you big guys! Fucking pissing me off with that shit!"

Jaguar: _very apologetically_ "Ah hey man… didn't mean anything by that. Just was sayin’ is all… I mean… you're cool dude… "

Fin: _c_ _almer_ "Alright then. Well where do I get these collars I need and where do I need to go?"

Jaguar: "Ah the collars are two rooms back the way you came. I will show you. I was heading back that way myself as I left my lunch in there by accident. I have a map I can show you in the locker that shows where you need to take the rabbit."

Tala thought _a_ _map… awesome, now we are getting somewhere._

Finnick wheeled Tala back the way they came with the jaguar leading the way. He used a key card to access the door and opened it holding it open while Finnick wheeled Tala inside. The jaguar grabbed his lunch and then opened his locker and looked through some papers and found a laminated map inside and brought it over to Finnick. The jaguar circled where they were and then circled an area about halfway across the map where they needed to go and drew a line where the best path was. He grabbed a clear plastic rectangular tub with a shallow height of about half an ear and with plastic lid. He then went over to a drawer and pulled out a white thin semicircular device with a hinge and another semicircle. This must be the collar they were talking about. Tala been watching all this out of the corner of her eyes. She had her eyes half open the entire time and her tongue partially out of her mouth.

Jaguar: _wondering_ "Boy or girl?"

Fin: "Ah man… I don't know... they all look the same to me."

Jaguar: "Yeah I know, but we just had a boy."

She feels some paws start pulling off her shirt and hears Finnick intake his breath and start to growl… she then hears him control himself.

Fin: "Ah I got this man. You go eat your lunch."

Jaguar: "You sure? Okay thanks, well just put everything in the containers."

Tala feels her shirt pulled the rest of the way off her and hears some cloth which must be her shirt being tossed into the plastic tub.

Fin: _appreciative_ "K thanks for your help."

Jaguar: "No Problem."

She hears a buzzing sound and then the door open and then shut.

There is a pause of a few seconds and hears the sound of little footsteps go over to the door and out of the corner of her eye she sees the fennec grab a box and pull it over in front of the door and then climb on top and get on his tiptoes and look out the window.

Then she heard a bunch of curse words she had never heard before followed by.

Fin: _excitedly_ "Holy motherfucking shit Tala! I almost lost it on him when he pulled on your shirt."

Tala: "Yeah I heard. Am glad you controlled yourself. That was pretty close."

Fin: "Well let me get that collar and see if I can disable whatever its function is."

Finnick heads over to the collar and fiddles with it. Tala takes off her watch and removes her phone and then removes her shorts and underwear and puts them in the clear plastic container and closes the lid. She sits on the counter waiting for Finnick to finish dabbling with the collar and hears him say…

Fin: "Not sure what this thing does, but I was able to break the latch and the electric contact so anything it does would be disabled and the collar removable and… **Good Lord Tala**!"

Finnick had turned around with the collar in his one paw and a small metal tool in his other and had a wide eyed shocked expression on his face. He then put his head down looking at the floor.

Fin: _upset_ "Girl, put your clothes on!"

Tala: "They said I had to be fully unclothed. I don't care about nudity. My sister Judy is in trouble and I could care less about anything else."

Fin: "You're damn brave girl… maybe more brave and determined than your sister. It's just I can't look at you like that."

Finnick thinks for awhile and looks around the room intentionally avoiding looking at Tala.

Tala: _says in an exasperated tone_ "Finnick we don't have time for this."

Fin: "God damn it girl I'm gonna burn in hell for this."

Tala: _softly_ "It's all okay Finnick. Can we please get my sister?"

Finnick grumbles a good bit and finally comes over and attaches the collar around Tala's neck making sure to keep eye contact with her and not look anywhere else.

Once it is attached Tala lies down on the cart on her side facing forward. Finnick rolls the cart toward the door.

Fin: "Can you open the door?"

To push the exit button and then push the door open she gets up on her knees and stretches pushing the door forward.

Tala: "Yeah let me reach here, okay got it. You can push forward."

Fin: "Okay… **Ah Shit!** "

Tala: _concerned_ "What's wrong Finnick?"

Fin: _resigned_ "Well not gonna be able to unsee that. Hell it is then."

Tala: "What? Oh… sorry Finnick… it's really okay."

Fin: _grumbles_ "Maybe for you… I gotta burn my eyes out"

Tala: "Poor Judy she must of had to go through all this. She was wearing a collar just like this one and was unclothed when I saw her in the vision. What the hell is going on here?"

She saw Finnick put the tub with her clothes and belongings as well as his bat in the underside of the cart. He put the taser that Tala had been carrying earlier into the plastic box with her possessions. She then felt the cart go through the door and up the hall.

Fin: _distressed_ "Speaking of Judy if she ever hears about this I'm a dead man."

Tala: "She will understand. Quit complaining Fin let's just go get her. She must be in this transfer station area. "

Fin: _grumbling_ "Easy for you to say. You're not the one she's gonna kill…"

Tala lay back down on her side and got into her usual position with her eyes half open with her tongue partially extended. She could see herself going down a long hallway and then some turns. After a few minutes she started to hear a lot of sounds. She heard lots of voices and the sounds of feet. She heard trucks. She heard a lot of activity. This was a very busy place. She could identify possibly fifty or more different animals just in her hearing range. She was starting to get very nervous.

She thought what did I get myself into? I am being wheeled exposed and completely helpless right into who knows what evil that has taken my sister and all these other mammals. Tala felt self-doubt ten times greater than a few hours earlier when she had been walking in the dark up the tunnel. She didn't think she would ever want to be back there again but she did. She wished she was back in the tunnel blindly moving along more than anything.

Fin: _whispering super low so only Tala could hear_ "Tala quit you're shaking."

Tala realized she had been shaking with fear and dread. She had to calm herself to stop her nose and body from quivering. She thought of her brave sister and how she had braved death many times against the very worst odds. She was glad at least Finnick was here with her.

* * *

At this moment Finnick was not happy he was here with her at all. He wished he and Tala were anywhere but here and far far away. How in the world did he let this girl talk him into coming here in the first place? It seems she could talk him into doing anything. No one else in this world could get him to do anything he didn't want to do... except for her. She was like the little sister he never had. And a bunny at that. And… oh god damn it, there was no way to push the cart and avoid seeing parts of his little sister he should never never see. If he did have a hot poker he might have stuck it in his eyes at that moment. He gave up trying to avoid it and decided maybe overexposure would help make it feel normal. After five more minutes he realized this was not working. He had never considered going to a psychiatrist before, but he swore to himself he was going to try and find one to erase this part of his memory with hypnosis or drugs if he ever got out of this alive. Thinking of clearing his memory made him feel calm finally and he smiled to himself until he realized he was not watching where he was going and had run into someone.

Fin: "Fuck me!" Finnick exclaimed under his breath.

He saw he had hit a badger in a lab coat in its back. The startled badger turned around with a shocked wide-eyed face.

Badger: "What the…."

Fin: "Sorry Miss..." He could tell it was a female badger. "… my fault, wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Can you direct me to..." He looks down at the map. "The transfer room?"

The badger looks at him and then looks down at Tala with a very strange and curious look on her face.

Badger: "I… I thought there were only two subjects. Where the hell did this one come from?"

Fin: "Sorry Ma'am, I don't know anything about that. I just do what I'm told."

Badger: "Well we already have a rabbit. Hmm…."

She looks Tala over and starts to rub her paw down Tala's back.

Finnick tensed and put his paw into his pocket and puts some brass knuckles around his paw so as soon as Tala moves he was going to have to try and take this badger out fast. It wasn't that he had any qualms about hitting a female or a doctor. He was just worried he could not do it without being heard.

The badger put her paws down to Tala's tail and pulled it up so it lifted Tala's butt up into the air a good ten to fifteen centimeters and looked down at it. Finnick started to pull his paw out with the brass knuckles ready to smash the good doctor in the face when all of a sudden she let go of Tala's tail and she could see Tala wince as her rear fell back. The doctor could not see Tala's face fortunately but instead turned to look at Finnick.

He quickly put his paw back into his pocket and smiled at her.

Badger: "Well we needed a girl bunny anyway. Almost looks like the other female one. Guess they all do look alike."

Finnick ground his teeth while keeping the smile on his face. Oh damn how he wanted to cave the good doctor's face in right at this moment. God how he wanted to.

Badger: "Well don't let me keep you. We are about to do the transfer so you better hurry. You are almost there. Take a right here..." She points off to the right where she had been walking and then down on the left about 100 meters. “You can't miss it. It is lit up like a nighttime pawball game. "

Fin: "Ah thanks. Will try and get there as quick as I can with these little legs."

Badger: "Hey where is your uniform?"

Finnick took his paws and flared them down his body and out on each side.

The badger seemed to understand.

Badger: "Oh sorry. They should have ordered additional sizes. Well hurry, they are almost ready."

Finnick did not waste time and took off pushing the cart as fast as he could. He didn't look back to see if the badger was watching, but he didn't hear her coming after them.

Fin: _concerned_ "You okay Tal?"

Tala: _whispering super low_ "I think that was the most humiliating thing I have ever experienced."

Fin: _grumbling to himself_ "It was a lot worse from back here."

Tala: _whispering_ "What?"

Fin: _whispering_ "Nothing Tal. We are almost there. Get ready to roll off and find a hiding place when I tell you."

As Finnick came close to the bright lit up area ahead, he could smell them well before he got close. Wolves. Damn why did it have to be wolves? They always seem to be guarding anything he wanted to get into badly. Wolves had a keen sense of smell and decent hearing and the best alarm you could find with their howl. This is why you found them guarding important things a lot. The one thing they were not was the brightest bulbs in the ceiling. That was his only hope of getting past them. The only thing he worried about is that they could smell fear and Tala might possibly react if they examined her too closely. She might be a great actress, but there was nothing she could do about her rabbit instinct. A rabbit will unconsciously flinch when exposed to something like a wolf or fox. It is something in their DNA which made them survive as long as they did in their primitive form. Finnick would have to do something to distract them so they would not notice or get close enough to her. He would have to just be ready and to react and depend on his fox and con artist instincts to get them through this next bit.

He approached two wolves standing on either side of a door offering an entrance into the well lit building which had to be the transfer area. He saw a couple other wolves patrolling around the outside of this large building. It was like a large temporary structure enclosed in a tent in the middle of the power plant. It made no sense but here it was. The building was about 50 meters by 100 meters and about 15 meters high. It was made of some kind of white canvas and you could see it glowing inside from powerful temporary lights like you would see in large construction projects placed all around inside. He could hear some occasional movement from inside, but there was a fair bit of hum from a lot of electrical currents running through the entire building so it was difficult to make anything out.

Finnick decided he was going to try and push through ignoring the wolves and see if that worked. It didn't. As soon as he approached both wolves looked up with a surprised look on their faces and stepped in front of the door blocking the way. Damn their jaws were just a short distance away from Tala. As they began to look down at her he pulled the cart back quickly and walked around in front of the cart standing between them and Tala and stared up at the wolves with an angry glare.

Fin: _irritated voice_ "Step aside you mangy mongrels I gotta get this subject inside for transfer quick!"

The wolves look down at the fennec and one says…

Wolf1: "We weren't told about any other transfers."

Fin: "Well what the fuck do you think this is… afternoon dinner?" He points at Tala with his paw up and open.

Wolf2: "Um no, of course not. But they said not to let anyone else in."

Fin: "See the rabbit." Points at Tala "See the collar." Points at her collar "Rabbit plus collar equals transfer. It's simple math. Even you guys can get that."

Wolf1: "No need to insult us."

Fin: "Look guys I am just a grunt like you guys. They tell me take the rabbit here. Put the rabbit there. I don't question it, I just do it. All I know is that if I am late there is gonna be hell to pay. Hell to pay for **everybody**."

The two wolves look at each other and gulped. They understand what he meant.

As if by mutual unspoken agreement they each moved to the side and stare straight ahead not saying anything.

Finnick doesn't waste any time and runs back behind the cart and pushes it through into this transfer building.

The first thing Finnick notices looking around is that it is broken into sections all of which lead into a center area where most of the lighting was focused. The one thing that especially catches his eye is the temporary ventilation cooling system running around the entire building as well as through the central area. Finnick knew he had only moments to get out of the area before being seen. So he wheeled the cart over near a vent grate and pulled out his handy toolkit for picking locks or in this case unscrewing vent covers, and quickly began unscrewing the cover and whispered to Tala.

Fin: _loud whisper_ "Tala come down here quick!"

Tala quickly rolls off the cart and sees him finishing up unscrewing the vent cover. He motions with his head to the plastic container and bat and she quickly takes them out from under the cart. He pulls off the grate and she pushes the container and bat into the grate. She then tries to slide into the vent and Finnick helps to push her rear inside.

Fin: _grumbling_ "Oh this is so wrong. So so wrong."

Tala: _whispering_ "What's wrong Fin?"

Fin: _whispering_ "Oh nothing Tal. Just get in there the best you can."

Finnick finishes pushing her into the vent the best way he knows how and just gives up trying to be careful where he puts his paws and shoves her in as quickly as possible.

Finnick hears someone coming and quickly grabs the grate and steps inside pulling the grate closed behind him holding it with his digits just as he sees two sets of feet in lab coats come around the corner and stand in front of the cart.

Scientist1: "I thought I heard someone here."

Scientist2: "Don't see anyone."

Scientist1: "Looks like they left a cart."

Scientist2: "Well grab it we could use an extra one anyway to help with the unloading."

He sees the scientists grab the cart and wheel it in the direction of the middle area. He pulls out his tool and bends the metal of the grate so it would wedge into the opening in order to prevent it from falling out on it's own.

He hears Tala began to speak and puts his paw up in front of her face letting her know to keep quiet while he concentrates listening to make sure the scientists had left. After a few seconds he became satisfied that the coast was clear.

Fin: _whispering_ "Toss me the bat. You get dressed and keep that taser at the ready."

Finnick waited for Tala to finish dressing. She offered him his handy bat 'Betty' and she finished putting all her clothes and belongings back on. When she was finished she gave him a sign all was good and he said "Thank God" to himself. Finnick stashed the bat under his shirt on his back and started moving slowly through the ventilation tunnel toward the central area. He wanted to get a good look at what was going on. The vent shaft was tall enough so that he could walk upright with just his ears bending on the top. Tala had to crouch and slide but she was quite agile. The two of them moved along readjusting their position to make sure they made absolute minimal noise as they maneuvered through the maze. One time they got off track and had to back up a bit which was a bit tricky, but finally got righted and moved to the central area. They found a large vent opening they both could look through at the same time.

They could see an area where there was a white raised rectangular platform with a metal base. The base and platform appeared to be about 10 meters long and 5 meters wide. On the platform they could see two large solid half barrel like structures each containing a large orange egg like structure with their top halves tilted open with some kind of hydraulic controlling the joint. Next to the egg like structure there was a box with a great number of dials and controls and a large number of thick black wires as well as a thick metal tube covered in insulation connected to the base of the egg structure down in the tub area.

Tala: _whispering softly_ "What is that?"

Fin: _whispering softly_ "Ya got me. Looks like some kind of artificial egg embryo for giving birth or something."

Tala: _whispering_ "Hmmm... I noticed they could slide those capsule things off that metal platform. See how they are shifting them.”

Fin: _whispering_ "You're right. Good eye girl. I see they have forklifts that can remove them when they slide those things to the end of the platform."

Tala: _whispering "_ Looks like something is about to happen."

They pair watched as a different badger than they had run into earlier and a leopard in white lab coats carried an unclothed sheep wearing a collar like Tala was still wearing and carefully put it into the egg capsule and closed the top. He could hear the hydraulics close and heard it lock into place. The scientists checked some dials and setting on the box next to egg capsule and seemed satisfied and moved out of view.

They came back a minute later carrying a brown rabbit about the same size as Tala but with shorter ears and smaller eyes. This was not unusual as Tala and her sister Judy both had longer and wider ears and larger eyes than most rabbits. This brown rabbit had more common features. He could hear Tala inhale as they saw the rabbit. They carefully put it into the egg capsule and closed the top just like the first and checked the dials.

They could hear the scientists say…

Scientist1: "Everything looks good."

Scientist2: "Breathing and heart rate okay?"

Scientist1: "Yeah everything is looking good to go."

Scientist2: "Okay am sending communication now."

There is a pause of about a minute.

Scientist2: "Okay they are ready. Get behind the barrier."

Scientist1: "Coming."

They see the two scientists move out of view. After about thirty seconds they hear a gradually growing humming sound. Then they hear a wump wump wump sound which begins to get louder and louder.

Tala: _worried_ "What the hell is that? I'm scared."

Finnick holds her paw tight.

Fin: _nervous_ "No idea. Oh damn. This is so fucked up."

They see the air begin to shimmer around the whole top of the platform. The entire area of the platform and about five meters above it begin to distort as if it was in a fog, but there were blue and yellow lights in the middle of the fog. It became blurrier and blurrier and the sound was deafening. Both he and Tala put their paws over their ears and winced in pain.

Then all of a sudden the sound stopped and… The metal platform and the egg type containers were just gone!

Fin: and T: _stunned_ "What the..."

Tala: _whispering_ "They are just gone."

Fin: _whispering_ _in an awed tone_ "The metal platform and anything on it just disappeared. Fuck Me."

Scientist2: "They got everything okay. Everything was clean."

Scientist1: "Great… how many incoming we have?"

Scientist2: "Schedule says three."

Scientist1: "How long?"

Scientist2: "Probably charge time of fifteen minutes between each. Should be plenty of time to move the stuff off."

Scientist1: "Okay well go tell the lift guys to be ready."

Scientist2: "Will do."

They hear the sound of some kind of walkie communication device and the scientist talking to some others on the other end.

Tala: _whispering_ "That is what happened to Judy and the others. They just disappeared somewhere."

Fin: _whispering_ "But where?"

Tala: _whispering sadly_ "I don't know. But it was very far from here I knew that. Like **REALLY** far."

Fin: _whispering_ _confused_ "What the fuck is going on here?

Tala: _whispering_ "Nothing good that is for sure."

 


	25. Warning Bells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written in collaboration with Pudong. I want to thank Pudong so very much for his help bouncing off ideas to make Vol 1 and Vol 2 better and this chapter. I have never tried writing in collaboration before but I think in the end you get a lot more ideas and end up thinking through what you want a lot more.
> 
> This is my first experiment with collaboration. This is an important chapter… since we are near the finish line all the remaining chapters are pivotal. In retrospect it would have been far better to have Pudong done a one off… maybe having Nick have a flashback or something and write that but the pacing at this point in the story would not work. The last open chapter was "Humanity, Is it Really So Bad?" everything after is building toward a climax.
> 
> I have attempted to keep as much as possible of what was written by Pudong or the essence of his words and modified some areas for consistency so if it seems a bit different than the others you know why.
> 
> This is a personal message from Pudong:
> 
> "Hey guys, I'm Pudong. I'm Chinese, and this is also my first time writing in collaboration. I feel extremely honored to be working with Menser. We are both intrigued by the darkness Zootopia holds deep down, even though I'm glad the cartoon itself made me laugh.
> 
> I hope I can continue to help with this story, as I feel it is unique and different from all other Zootopia fanfics I've found."

As Nick tucked the dossier back inside his shirt, he appeared to be a shaken fox. Both his paws trembled from pure fear alone as he vainly convinced himself it was simply the cold and nothing more. Strange that he had never experienced this feeling when he was still a con hustling rubes and marks with ease and abandon. Nor did his legs, let alone his paws ever shake in terror whilst he now chased criminals many times his size and weight. This was entirely different. He had just read about a plan, a conspiracy, a potential coup that could alter his, along with hundreds of thousands or even millions of individual lives forever.

Everything was going to end here. If all he read in the dossier came true, their entire world could be changed for a long time to come by this insane excuse of an organization that had somehow gained support from an unknown entity. Weapons he barely had the name for, assault rifles called ACRs, armor piercing or high velocity ammunition, explosives, handguns, words that never before existed to his or most likely any Zootopian's own vocabulary. In some ways he thanked fate for letting him get his paws on this horrid piece of work. At least now he might have some chance, however remote of stopping it.

It was dreadful. These mammals… could he even call them that? These creatures were going to stage a coup, an attempted take-over of their entire civilization. Bunnyburrow, Gopherville and other suburbs, the power stations, manufacturing facilities… they were all outside the metropolis's reach, but they all kept the grand city operating and without them it would be crippled. If this group really decided to act with their many minions, they would be able to hold the inhabitants of Zootopia hostage. From the information he had read just a few minutes ago, he couldn't believe this massive operation had been under their noses the whole time. How could something on such a grand scale been kept so quiet for so long? They had a highly organized extensive operation with seemingly massive numbers of agents to carry out simultaneous attacks all around the outer areas of Zootopia. If the specifications and description of these guns… these assault rifles were to be believed the weapons of the ZPD would be completely outmatched by these weapons of unheard of destruction.

Guns that could kill instead of ones to immobilize or put animals to sleep. Explosives that could destroy even the largest animal instantly. But on top of everything there was a secret weapon. A secret weapon he had to destroy at all costs.

He personally wondered how God or any deity would let such horrid creatures get their paws upon these weapons, tools capable of destroying the world. Surely they had been abandoned by any such entity. The specification sheets and manuals on all these new weapons of killing and mayhem were too much to conceive. And how did Judy and all the missing mammals fit into this nightmare scenario? The thought of his friend at the mercy of creatures capable of imagining such things had shaken him to the core.

He couldn't let this happen. He needed help. He needed Chief Buffalo Butt.

Slowly standing up from the chair in this abandoned room, he let the dead phone drop from his paws onto the dusty floor that had not seen a broom or mop for years. Nick tried to ignore his trembling legs and his dread. He needed every ounce of his courage for all of this to work. He worked his way out once again into the dimly-lit corridor, and began to formulate the plan he so desperately needed in his clever mind. He first needed a floor plan, a map of this compound. As he strolled past the outer perimeter, he took in all the commotion, mentally tracking every building, every truck, every item. He was careful not to run, lest he bump into another guard who might not be so easy to trick. The time for games was done, he was all business. He would have to be careful to avoid any action that would cause suspicion.

As dozens and dozens of personnel trickled past him, his eyes began to scan the faces one by one. All predators. No sign of any prey. He could not remember seeing a single prey animal anywhere in the facility except for the two prisoners. And thinking back to the mammals taken and Judy. They were all prey. Could this abhorrent Covenant be a predator takeover? Could his own kind be capable of such an act? He hoped it was not so. But all signs pointed to such a conclusion. The predator and prey situation in Zootopia was currently better than it had ever been. After the savage predator attacks and paranoia of the Bellwether administration or Ffion's savage predator movement things had finally calmed down and the trust had been mended. If this was a predator conspiracy, he had to stop it at all costs before there was irreparable harm done to the tentative peace and understanding between the two groups.

He would have to be the one to redeem his own kind. It would be the height of irony if the predators were undone by one of their own. He hoped this would be the case. He needed to get his head in the game and find the right target. His mind started to choose, starting to filter out those who were too strong for him to challenge, and those who just **might** provide him with the opportunity to slip past.

Bingo. A petite otter slowly walked by the fox, his eyes following the text on his folder of reports. There was an entire stack of manila folders tucked between his arm and his torso. He had no idea he was being carefully monitored.

Nick: _greeting him as an old friend_ "Hey! Joseph!" Nick made his way over to the occupied otter. "Where have you been all day?"

He had quickly gotten the name off the top of the folder the otter had been reading and referred to him as if he had known him all his life. The name on the folder read Joseph M. Middleton. A dull name for a dull mammal. It was very convenient of this Covenant to provide him with names on the folders as it helped to make his work quite a bit easier.

Joseph: _stammering_ "Uhh, hello I guess… Austin?"

Nick: _responding to his borrowed name tag he had found while searching the trash_ "Umm... hey Middleton, mind if I borrow your floor map for a while? I'm kinda, well, new here."

Nick's face blossomed into a huge grin, the one he had mastered since the age of twelve.

Nick: "I'm sure someone as kind as you can't decline… aren't you known for that?"

Nick laid one his furry paws onto the otter's skinny shoulder.

Joseph: _grunting_ "There ain't a floor plan here I know of. Just go find ol' freaking Tigerstone for the details, won't ya. I really gotta go."

Nick: _laughing_ "Oh well, I guess I'm sorry. I don't wanna be cursed out by that Tiger do I?"

Nick thought silently _Who the hell was Tigerstone? Mr. Dullness's boyfriend or something?_

The otter began moving along the corridor again.

Nick: "Umm, Joseph?" _raising his voice_ "I think you dropped something."

The otter looked to the ground and retrieved a lone manila folder.

Joseph: "Thanks, I guess, Austin."

The fox seemed to be standing closer to him than normal with his usual grin _._

Joseph: _muttering_ "Say, wasn't recruitment closed for now? I'd thought…" He continued on his way.

Austin aka Nick grinned to himself as he watching the otter go on his merry way. He had used the folder he had been given along with his procured uniform quite well. He then turned back the way he come and strolled confidently through the bunker area, the phone with the map marked Mr. Joseph Middleton in his sly hands.

Along the way he heard snippets of strange conversations, as well as terrifying roars coming from behind hard oak doors marked _Administration_. He nervously gulped and tried to remember the map he had so deft obtained… that was, before Mr. Dull's phone battery died.

One right, two lefts, two rights, straight forward, 4th room on the right side. The numbers seemed to bounce around in his mind. He concentrated and walked on. Nearly there he thought, Fifteen minutes later he entered a brightly-lit passageway marked _Communications_. The first three doors seemed to be locked but fortunately this one appeared to be in a state of disuse. It's knob long covered with stains of rust.

However some noise emanated from the room exactly opposite from the fourth on the right. Huge bursts of laughter were occasionally emanating from the room concealed behind the modern, iron-plated door. It was a temptation Officer Wilde could not resist. Ever so slowly and silently, he crept until his body was adjacent to the wall of the room filled with obscene laughter. Over the din of chatter and occasionally apparently hilarious jokes, he could hear… a strange vibrating noise. The kind you heard on the phone every time you made a call. A few moments later, a voice came over a computer or whatever device was being used for monitoring in the facility.

"Hey Jaaackson… how's my love today…” A feminine voice stretched.

The laughter once again erupted from inside the room.

"It's the lovebirds again!" A voice exclaimed.

"Quiet! I don't want to miss this part!"

"Idiots always seem to forget all local communication is monitored. I guess all that love in their brains pushed out any common sense."

A few more squeals of laughter.

Nick turned away from the wall with frustration. They were monitoring all channels local and long range in the facility and apparently cell phones were blocked here. From the dossier it appeared all computer access was blocked in this facility as well for security reasons. How in the world was he going to be able to get any word out of this place?

Nearly yelling out loud in frustration, his sent a full blow with this leg into the thickness of the door. With his police training, he might have actually succeeded in kicking it down. Fortunately, the tough old hinges held, plus with volume of chatter coming from inside, his temperament and sudden outburst was unobserved. He **had** to get word out and fast somehow.

The first fox cop concentrated. He erased all previous thoughts out of his mind and tried the door to the _Backup Communications Room_. It was the only system he was sure wouldn't be closely supervised. It appeared all the ground lines had been disconnected, and he didn't have the time to actually locate a working landline. All the ones he had found so far had all been disconnected. All mobile cell phone communications were being blocked or disrupted by the power station itself.

He swore under his breath. The knob was locked. He was attempted to kick it down again, but his instincts forced him to hold back. He opened his tiny pack, a little cache of supplies he had kept inside his pouch for emergencies. Nick took out a set of tiny tools, and for the first time in his life he actually depended on using the tiny little pieces of metal instead of merely using them to cause mischief. He stuck two of thin metal strips into the lock, and started to twist…

He felt a heavy paw clamp down on his shoulder, nearly crushing him and shocking him to death. Officer Wilde turned around, fully expecting an angry guard carrying one of those _pistols_ he had briefly read about. Instead he discovered a medium sized tiger somewhere in the neighborhood of forty years old staring down at him. His facial expression looked confused and not sure what to make of Nick.

Tiger: "You're from maintenance, aren’t you?" He inquired, breaking the deafening silence. "Kenton?"

Nick: _enthusiastically_ "Sir, yes Sir!" Nick gave him a mock salute. "Just checking the neglected rooms."

Tiger: _playing along with Nicks joke_ "At ease, Private." _snapping a salute in reply._ "Haven't you a got a master key on you?"

Nick: _looking downcast_ "Lost it, sir," Nick answered with such genuine frustration that he himself was lost in the act for a split moment. _"_ It seems to have disappeared over time. Nobody goes in it anymore. I just received my orders, sir!"

Tiger: _handing Nick a full set of keys "_ Take mine, used to be in your department as well. Such a shame they abandoned some of the older communications equipment."

Nick: "Exactly, sir!"

Nick played along as he turned the key in the door. The wooden obstacle swung open, spraying Nick with an unpleasant odor that he doubted he could wash off in a shower.

Tiger: _winking as he put his paw out for the keys to be returned_ "I gotta get back to my office now, they need me."

Nick: _appreciatively_ "Thank you, so much, sir!" Nick snapped back as he placed the keys back in the tiger's little pack. Slowly, concealing the original chain of keys in his palm, he grabbed the larger chain of keys and put his hand in his pocket, trying to act casual, hoping the size of his paw would be large enough to conceal the metal implements.

The Tiger noticed none of this, as he was so busy peeking into the ancient room.

Tiger: _"_ Well, see you, Austin!" _waving as he journeyed down the hallway._ "Feel free to call on me!"

 _Y_ _eah, maybe in a nice prison cell bastard_ Nick thought as he slammed the door shut and locked it tight, pushing a chair behind it for additional security.

He took a quick scan of the room. There was a rotten oak desk with several chairs in front of it where no one had sat in a very long time. Fortunately, one radio set still remained which would broadcast high frequency long range communication on public channels. His ingenious plan firmly in his mind he pulled out his phone. While it was useless as a communications device it was useful to run apps. He remembered he had an app which could play various tones. Some of Judy's siblings were fascinated as he used the tones to play songs for them. How he wished he could be there playing a song for them with Judy right now.

Connecting a plug to the dusty electric socket hidden in a corner of the room, he turned on the wireless set. The machine gave a few coughs, and came back to life, the lights gradually growing dimly and radio waves hummed through speakers. He wondered if he was making too much of a racket. More inane laughter from the room opposite convinced him otherwise.

Slowly, he picked up the lone set of earphones on the desk, and connected it to the machine. His entire plan came down to his old friend and survivalist conspiracy nut Honey Badger (not to be confused with Dr. Madge). She had taught him a lot of the survival skills he had used over the years to get out of scrapes and avoid numerous disasters. It would seem that her lessons could help lead to saving all of Zootopia if he could only get his vital information to the right mammals.

He sighed as he remembered his times starting as a smuggler and developing the skills to succeed as a hustler, and finally a cop. Who could have imagined it? His life had gotten quite complex. Everything had seemed so simple back then. But his life never had any real purpose until he met Judy and now his life had purpose had never been so important or meant so much to the lives of so many.

He needed to get the message out and had considered the possibly methods to accomplish this. After he had joined the ZPD, he had convinced his friend Honey to join as well as a communications specialist. She was an expert in all types of communication as she constantly scanned the airwaves for any snippet of information that fit one of the many conspiracies she was always tracking. She had accidentally been right about her favorite sheep conspiracy when Bellwether had taken over and had attempted to turn the entire city against the predators. Unfortunately this had really encouraged her to start seeing conspiracies around every corner. The ironic thing is that she had missed the biggest conspiracy of all right under her snout. But it was not her fault, this group had kept the secret from everyone.

If he tried to use the radio channels to contact Bogo or Clawhauser, it was quite possible one of the jokers in the room next door would hear him. There was only person he had a chance to contact in a convert manner so as not to be discovered. The only person who monitored these obscure channels. His good friend Honey.

He knew her shift was starting in ten minutes and she took punctuality seriously. She would turn on all the monitoring equipment that had been ignored for years in the ZPD Communications department always making sure it was on in the background. In was her own little background music, the occasional pops and static. To her this was a symphony. He only hoped that she was there today and not sick or assigned to a different department for the day. They had tried having her work in other jobs, but she was pretty miserable if she wasn't monitoring the police band and she made sure others knew it. In the communications room she was in her element. Listening to dozens of conversations at once and tracking everything that was happening in the city. It was great to see her conspiracy talents put to such good use managing the many dispatches that needed to be tracked for the ZPD.

He took a moment to get some rest and set an alarm on his phone. He had learned it did no good stewing when you had to wait. He had learned patience doing his cons. You had to be patient to be successful. That was one of the things that separately the amateurs from the professionals. He had also learned to not let time go to waste and get rest where you could so he closed his eyes and took the lessons he had been learning from Nangi and put himself into a trance.

He awoke ten minutes later when his phone alarm went off and he felt refreshed and calm. It was time to try and make this work. He had learned horse code from his friend Honey. He never thought it would be of any use, but she would make him practice sending her messages especially if she thought someone was listening. She was paranoid so this happened a lot more frequently that he wished. He just hoped he still remembered how to use it as it had been awhile since the last time he and her had such a conversation.

He turned to a channel he knew she monitored as he had sent her a test message on the channel when she first joined the ZPD Communications. He pulled out his phone and app and focused his entire mind on the message and the sequence of dots and dashes and pauses, the same ones he had used years ago. He hoped his memory was still sharp.

* * *

Nearly 100 kilometers away, in the almost empty ZPD Communications Office, there sat Honey Badger drinking her evening coffee. She enjoyed the night shift as things were a lot a lot quieter and she had far less to distract her from her favorite past time of listening for conversations or anything unusual. Anything she could fit into her growing list of conspiracies. She had turned on all the old equipment merely out of habit. She enjoyed the hum and occasional pop or murmur… it soothed her. She had only heard a few brief conversations on these channels. Mostly hobbyists reminiscing about the old days many just lonely and wanting someone to talk to. If she was especially bored she would answer, but these had been quiet for months. She figured there weren't many old timers left like her. It made her sad to see all the new technology seemingly making her a relic of the past.

She figured tonight would be like the last night and the night before… boring and uneventful. But fortunately she brought a stack of files to go over. It was nice when it was quiet like this as she could work on her real hobby and passion of getting to the bottom of these conspiracies and doing it on the man's (aka the ZPD's) dime. How ironic they were paying her to track some of those same conspiracies she knew they must be involved in as she was certain at least some at the ZPD were stooges for the shadow government in city hall. She was tracking a few sheep she knew were still pulling the strings.

She was deep into one of the files when she thought she heard something from an upper shelf on the wall… something she thought she recognized but hadn't heard in a very long time. Ah she thought to herself… her imagination was playing tricks on her… must be this file she was working on regarding the new Assistant Mayor. She wondered if she was really a sheep in disguise?

Strange she heard it again… it couldn't be her imagination or was she dreaming? She had just gotten here a few minutes ago and was feeling a big caffeine rush from her evening cup of Joe so it couldn't be a dream… at least not until maybe after midnight.

And then again… Okay she was wide awake now as a cold chill went down her spine and up her arms… her fur now standing at attention. This was not her imagination. This was real and it was actually happening. She grabbed for a pen and pad of paper. She was so nervous she knocked her mug and pen off the table. It crashed to the ground shattering her favorite mug and spilling her precious life nectar all over the floor. But her mind barely even acknowledged the accident as she grabbed her pen out of the hot coffee which burned her paw, but she felt no pain, and ran over to the wall staring at the ghost monitor that had come to life. She quickly grabbed a headset and stuck it on her head plugging it into the monitor and sat down at the chair in front of these ancient monitors so she would not miss a single sound.

"... - -. . -.- -... . ."

It was HORSE CODE!

She hadn't used that in years. The last time she ever used it was with her friend Nick Wilde. She hadn't talked to him but once since that rabbit friend of his Judy had gone missing. He had been pretty distant since then and had been a shell of his former self. She would love to tell him about this though. He would really get a kick that their old code was actually being used.

She translated the code.

"HONEYBEE"

The code repeated itself again. She doubled checked the letters and even checked her computer which had an old translation sheet on it. It was definitely correct.

Only a few people ever called that. And fewer still who knew horse code.

Ah… she smiled. Someone was playing a prank on her. This wouldn't be the first time. Her friends all delighted in pranking her as she quite was easy to victimize. It wasn't her fault that you couldn't ignore anything no matter how small if you were going to expose all the conspiracies going on in Zootopia. She wondered who it might be. Well regardless it was offering her something to break the boredom.

She opened the drawer and pulled out a transmitter she had gotten on at an electronics swap meet awhile back. It was such a rare find. The person transmitting was using some tonal device, but she had the real thing. She plugged into the outgoing line and responded.

"-. - / ..-. - .-. / ... -... / - ...- . .-." (GO FOR HB OVER)

She waiting feeling anticipation. Oh she love a mystery even if it was a prank. It was like a puzzle and she loved all kinds of puzzles and riddles.

"-. .. -.-. -.- .. - / ..-. - ..- -. -.. / -.-. .- .-. .-. - - ... / -.-. -... / -.. -. -.."

Wow a long one… let's see... that is…

"NICKIT FOUND CARROTS CB 898"

She was stunned for almost a minute staring at the message. She doubled checked the translation. It was correct. She heard the same message. There was no doubting what it said.

NICKIT was her nickname for Nick Wilde her old friend for so many years. It was her nickname for him. It had a double meaning that Nick had found so amusing. It mean Nick The Kit (baby fox) as she had known him since he was quite young and always thought of him as a Kit, but it was also slang for stealing something. She got a big smile thinking of how clever she had been coming up with that one. Let's see Nick out clever it. He still hadn't.

Found Carrots. Wasn't Carrots Nick's nickname for Judy Hopps?

"CB 898" That meant "Call Back" or switch to channel 898 a very high frequency rare channel that no one ever used. You needed a special old monitor to even send or receive on that channel.

"... -... / -. - - / .. - / -.-. -... / -.. -. -.. / .-. .- .- ..." She responded (HB GOT IT CB 898 PAWS)

This was a little bit of their own jargon. This meant she had received the message and understood what he wanted, but it would take a bit to set up to receive. And he needed to wait for her to respond that she was ready to receive.

She knew something was very much amiss. Why would Nick not call on his phone? If he found Judy why in the world would he be sending messages over this old equipment. She felt a chill all over her body like she just saw a ghost. This was no prank. Nick would **NEVER** under **any** **circumstances** joke about finding Judy after this past month. Something was **very** wrong she just knew it!

"... - ... / ..-. ..-."

She quickly translated.

"SOS FF"

It meant emergency he was in a desperate hurry.

Honey quickly got up and ran over to a closet that had old equipment in storage racks that she refused to let them throw out. Apparently just for a situation like this. She knew she had been right about keeping all this old junk just like she had known that Bellwether sheep was up to no good. She found the box she needed and pulled it out… almost dropping it. She stopped in place holding it off the floor and picked it up slowly. Then carefully carrying it over to the table she plugged it into the wall outlet. She heard it hum to life. Thank God! And quickly swapped the channel to 898 and started fiddling with the adjustment wheel to try and narrow down the band. It was such a delicate channel you had to be right on it to hear anything. She moved the adjustment up and down just a tiny amount not hearing anything.

Then she heard something… barely something and moved it just slightly up… and heard.

"Honeybee you there? Need Claw..."

She could barely make out the voice, but it did sound like it could be Nick. Unless the sheep had some new voice technology to modulate a voice to sound like him… no quit that Honey… it had to be him not a conspiracy.

Honey: _extremely worried_ "Nickit, what is wrong? How do you even know about this channel?"

Nick: "I didn't forget your lessons. You mentioned this years ago."

Nick: "They are monitoring everything else. Every frequency. This was the only one I knew you had to be right on it or you heard nothing. Connect me to Claw fast Honey… I have to talk to Bogo now!"

Honey was very worried. Nick was panting and sounded exhausted. She had never heard him like this before. She had so may questions… millions… they were all wanting to burst out at once but she obeyed and telephoned Clawhauser. She prayed he was still on duty. They were all working late this day as Nick and a couple other officers had disappeared, and a lot of the staff were working overtime to find them.

Upstairs Officer Clawhauser sat there alone at the ZPD reception desk, playing with his chubby paws. He had engulfed the last doughnuts fifteen minutes ago. He was convinced he was suffering from the effects of starvation already. His stomach growled loudly… it was a brutal mistress he had been slave to since a young age, and he tried to always obey her commands or face her terrible wrath.

Hmmm… that grumbling sounded more like ringing… when did his stomach ring? Did he accidentally eat a bell attached to that last doughnut again… it **had** tasted a bit funny…

No, wait. It was the telephone. It was actually ringing at this time of night! He scooped up the receiver with both paws juggling it in the air and finally getting it to his ear.

Claw: _excited_ "Hello, Officer Clawhauser, ZPD here. How may I help you?"

Honey: "Ben, it's Honey."

Claw: "What's wrong? You sound strange. There wasn't another sheep missing was there?"

Honey: "It's an invasion. Nick is under threat."

Ben was silent, his legs were trembling nearly giving in to his weight as he realized he was standing up and didn't even remember getting off his chair.

Honey: "Ben? Ben? Clawhauser! Nick's on the other end. He needs to contact Bogo, NOW!"

Claw: _gulping_ "Why didn't he call me directly?"

Honey: "He mentioned someone is listening to every call. He contacted me through an obscure unused connection."

Claw: "Put Nick on."

The fox's voice came in from 100 kilometers away, locked inside a dark, neglected room with a rusty ancient wireless set.

Nick: "Clawhauser, it's Wilde. You copy me?

Claw: "Roger. Hey, why so serious man? Here's something to…"

Nick: "Shut up, Claw. I need Bogo on, immediately. There's an invasion coming."

Claw: _gasping almost comically_ "A what? You know this is Bogo's Gaze… I mean private time."

Nick: _emphatically with a raised_ _"THIS INSTANT! THEY COULD STOP ME AT ANY MOMENT!"_

Nick nearly screams, hoping the noise from the monitor room would cover him.

Clawhauser threw down the receiver onto his desk and ran as fast his chubby legs could carry him. He never even knew he could run so fast, not even when he was trying to beat the crowd for Gazelle concert tickets. But all of that effort had taken its toll. After running to Bogo's office Clawhauser felt he had aged by two decades.

He yanked the door open, not even bothering to knock. The Chief sat there, his eyes glued to the screen of his mobile. Gazelle, no doubt. Hearing the bang on his door as it nearly shattered, he looked up and saw his receptionist bent over supporting himself on the door frame panting and wheezing without even knocking. Unacceptable!

Bogo: _banging his first on his desk_ "Clawhauser! I told you **NEVER** to interrupt me during this time under any circumstances!"

Claw: _slowly standing up_ "Sir! Sir! It's an invasion. Nick is on the line."

Bogo transferred the call from the communications room and was cupping the phone to his ears, listening intently and not wanting to miss a single word. An anxious Clawhauser stood nearby, shaking whilst eating another doughnut he had found squashed in his back pocket in order to calm down.

Bogo: "Officer Wilde. What is this all about?" His voice tried to remain bossy and professional as usual, even though he couldn't hide the tension in his voice.

Nick: "Sir!" Nick's voice was almost frantic over the phone, "I need backup immediately!"

Bogo: "Calm down, Wilde. You know how we deal with cases."

Nick: "This was an investigation, but it is far more than that now. This is full scale invasion."

Chief Bogo scratched his head. He had barely heard of the word invasion to begin with. It had never happened in this metropolis of his.

Bogo: "By whom?" These were the only words he could speak.

Nick: "The Covenant. They are a covert organization, located at one of the power plants around 100 kilometers west of the city center. They have weapons and devices capable of killing and destroying on a mass scale. I obtained their plans, everything's detailed inside. They are planning on taking over all key suburbs, power plants, manufacturing, food production anything that keeps Zootopia alive and holding it hostage. It's much bigger than anything we've imagined, sir. They're actually planning to take control of Zootopia."

Nick: "I could not call you over the mobile. They've blocked all outgoing signals. All the landlines seem disconnected. They monitor all communication from the headquarters at the power plant.”

The Chief felt his stomach tighten.

Bogo: _whispering_ "How?" He could scarcely believe his own ears.

Nick: "Rifles firing projectiles that rapidly kill and maim in huge numbers. Pistols that also fire projectiles for killing. Explosives and a secret substance to render the civilian population helpless. Everything is in place and planned for execution in a little over a day. Just listen to me. We have to stop this!"

Bogo: _incredulous_ "At this hour, Fox?"

Nick: " **Definitely**. They have hundreds of agents all ready to carry out this operation. The coordination, planning and resources are incomprehensible. They have been planning this for years under our noses the entire time. Well actually under our feet. They are the ones who have taken Judy and all the missing mammals. They took them through the remains of an ancient subway in old Zootopia so they could move unseen. I have seen two of the missing mammals here myself. I have not been able to find Judy, but I need to have them stopped so I can search the facility and interrogate the leaders to find her and the others. The only reason I stumbled onto this whole thing is I was tracking a lead I got on Judy's whereabouts and it led me here."

Nick: "The plan calls for simultaneous seizing of Bunnyburrow where all the fertile fields are in order to cut off most of our entire food supply. They will take control of Gopherville and the other suburbs stopping all manufacturing and goods. They will take control of all the power plants supporting Zootopia and cut off all roads and trains into and out of the city. They can bring the city to a halt holding it hostage. They will threaten to kill or starve the entire populace if their demands are not met."

Nick: "Our government will be forced to compromise, with half of the population subjugated and held hostage, and with no power or food or goods. The city would be brought to its knees. We have to stop before they execute the operation and gain control of the population and arm themselves with weapons to kill and destroy any forces which attempt to repel their attack. They have new technology from an unknown source which gives them superior power and control."

Bogo: _fuming_ "How will they even do this? We'll retaliate. I'm going to make sure none of these SOBs live to see prison!" Chief Bogo gritted his teeth on the other end.

Nick: "It's not that simple. They have a serum, Chief. It appears it is designed to render the population helpless and docile. They have new weapons capable of injecting this serum into massive amounts of population at once. There is no information on where this advanced technology and weaponry is coming from. It is as if it is just appearing at the power plant out of nowhere. I see manifests for sources for all the other supplies they are using, but not for these unknown weapons."

"Time is running out, sir. The invasion… is executing in 24 hours. We have to do something to prevent this operation **immediately**."

Bogo: _calming himself_ "Patience, Wilde." The Chief massaged his forehead, banishing the headaches that once again troubled him, "Where is this damn organization? I'll will personally pound each one of them into the ground."

Nick: "I don't know where all the leaders, are but their main base appears to be the western power station… the one with strange problems back in the '90s. You know the one they executed Operation Cyclone to solve. They have been distributing supplies and weapons all around Zootopia for months preparing for the operation."

Bogo: "The one that had the strange breach and potential devastation? How did you even know about that? It's supposed to be top secret!"

Nick: "I know everyone, Bogo, and I hear everything… except about this group until now. But now, I need everyone. This is our only chance. We have to act now! You need to mobilize the entire forces of Zootopia and the suburbs. We have very little time before it is too late to prevent massive casualties."

Chief Bogo understood. This undertaking was to be the largest in Zootopia history, even bigger than the operations that had founded it centuries ago. "Roger that, Wilde."

For the first time in his ZPD career, Nick actually felt a decent amount of respect shown towards him. He remembered how Bogo had treated him on his first day, pushing him around, secretly blackmailing him…

Bogo: "Something else, Wilde." The Chief said after a brief moment of static.

Nick: "I'm awaiting orders, sir."

Bogo: "You know what a field promotion is, officer?"

Nick: "Only vaguely, sir."

Bogo: "Well, you just got one." For once, Chief Bogo's voice sounded almost proud of the fox. "Congratulations, Sergeant Wilde."

Nick Wilde nearly dropped his headphones in the dark room 100 kilometers away. He actually got a promotion. A fox as a sergeant. Practically unheard of. But it wasn't going to mean much if the Covenant got their way. And without Judy to share the news with it was practically meaningless.

Besides he was not very sure he was going to live through the next 24 hours. Well at least he could put the new commission on his gravestone… and maybe pinned to his chest in the casket… if there was even anything left to put in one.

Bogo: "You know, I've always thought that I owed you something." The boss muttered on, barely showing his gratitude, "Ever since the thing with the Night Howlers…..you've practically cracked every case, with Judy of course. But for this one, and this one only, you succeeded by yourself. This is nobody's work but yours. You deserve it."

Nick was so surprised he didn't even bother replying.

Bogo: _crisply_ "ORDERS, SERGEANT!" Bogo snapped back into his original unforgiving self.

Officer… Sergeant Wilde sat up straighter. He was about to do his part in preventing this full-out invasion. He was going to save Judy and the others. He was going to prevent the deaths of thousands of innocents. He was going to stop predators from destroying the good will they had earned from the people of Zootopia.

Nick: _expectantly_ "The sergeant is awaiting orders, sir!" He answered in a mock authoritarian tone.

Bogo: "Just stay put and remain hidden. You still have your reward ceremony to attend." His voice was almost teasing, "Wait for our elite forces. They will solve everything. You're no match for them, off… I mean Sergeant."

Nick shook his head. He hadn't walked into living hell to stand by and watch while everything exploded around him.

Nick: _sarcastically_ "I'm sorry sir." He nearly laughed out loud, revealing his chuckle, "You may want to hold off on that commission. This is going to be the one hundredth of your orders I'm going to disobey."

Nick hung up, satisfied with his reply.

Back at the his office, Chief Bogo slammed down the telephone. He didn't have the time to actually care for one little pesky fox. He had an invasion to think about. A preventive counter-attack.

Bogo: "Clawhauser!” He commanded in his usual authoritative tone, "Hand me the portable. Get me the mayor, the city council, the emergency ZPD authority and God Damn anyone else you can think of on the phone now. We have a massive amount of planning and mobilization to do and very little time to get it done."

* * *

Using the authority obtained during Operation Cyclone, the tiger headed back to his office. Along the way, he kept wondering about the fox he had just encountered 20 minutes ago. There was something just unusual about him, something off-putting. But hey, weren't all of the foxes like that? He was just a maintenance grunt, wasn't he? He tried to force the thoughts out of his mind and sat down on his nice new chair, behind the desk marked _Tigerstone_.

But alas, temptation got the better of him and he absently turned on his computer, a new advanced model these _human_ creatures sent him personally. He was one of the few who was privileged enough to know exactly what the entity really was and with whom they were in a partnership with. He clicked on the search box and typed _Personnel Data File_. The screen loaded for a split second, and he found the page which he had been looking for. He guided his mouse, a sleek black design and chose the search bar. He entered the fox's name. What was it again? Austin Kenton. He finished typing, and pressed the button that said _enter_.

The Data File lay before his eyes. Austin Kenton was a wolf. And his fur was gray, not red.

He now knew what he had to do. He had to keep this quiet and contained so that his superiors would never hear of it, and he did not want a distraction to interfere with the operation as they were already behind schedule. If he did not contain this breach quickly, he would be shot if he was lucky… and slowly dismembered by the Covenant authority if he was not.

He grabbed the walkie off his desk and switched to the special security channel on the base.

He lifted the device to his mouth, "Security, we have a breach. Report. We need to commence GS-2."


	26. Executing the Mission

It was a moonless night as the sky was overcast and there was the slight feel of moisture in the faint breeze. The stars hid like they knew that danger was in the air and to be seen could mean their death. Down on the ground there was an earthy smell tinged with fresh cut grass and a barely perceptible scent of smoke from a far off chimney. A small pink nose sniffed deep to draw these scents in and two large gray ears rose up as if they were soldiers standing at attention. However the owner of those same ears was frustrated as no sound could be heard above the slight breeze and her patience was wearing thin. She had been waiting for this day from the second she had awoken in a small cage in a strange land alone, abandoned, naked and confused. However she was no longer alone. The very same creatures who had been her tormentors now attempted to turn from oppressors to liberators as they rejected the authority of the land declaring its actions erroneous, malicious and vile. To think that they could side with someone not of their own kind against such opposition demonstrated that their species had the potential to expand beyond their world and create a bond of friendship that could cross space time itself.

This gray furry creature longed for her homeland a true world away, but she knew she had a great task ahead and she had only a small amount of control over what was to take place in the next few hours. It was so arduous putting your fate into the paws of creatures you only have known for the briefest of time. She knew the heart of only one of these creatures and recognized it to be true and pure. She had to depend on the others the pure one trusted. It was onerous believing in those whose motivations were unknown and actions unproven. She rose out of the black bag on the pure one's back and lay her arms around his neck holding tightly onto this lifeline who found her in the blackest depths of despair, and whom she hoped would act as her bridge to salvation.

"Can you see anything?" The gray one whispered to the lifeline.

"Not a thing. You okay back there?" The pure one said with concern in his voice staring ahead with special glasses with red lenses that could see in the black of night.

"It was a little cramped but it feels nice to be out of the bag." She admitted with relief.

"Well we are going to have to spring you on those guys eventually, but I figured it would best if we did it once we were inside." The pure one said with a slight worry in his voice.

"Not more fainting I hope." The gray one said with concern. It seemed her very sight caused these creatures to faint every time she met one.

"Well the Colonel has seen pretty much everything and I could never imagine him fainting. I am just waiting for the right time." The pure one explained.

"Well he seems kind of scary. Not so scary as Mia, but scary." The gray one admitted.

"She turned out okay didn't she? He is my friend and I could never imagine him being anything but faithful to our mission." The pure one said firmly believing what he said was true.

"I hope so. I haven't had the best luck with humans, but I guess I only need a couple to not hate me totally." The gray one said in jest thinking back to her friendly banter with the pure one.

"Aww you remembered. Gonna make me cry." The pure one said touched.

"Would you guys get a room?" The cranky one said in a frustrated whisper.

"What does she mean by that?" The gray one asked in the ear of the pure.

"Nothing, Judy she is just acting jealous." The pure one chided so the cranky one could hear. "Let's just wait it out. Let me know if you hear anything."

"Of course." The gray one slid back down into the bag and kept her ears up focusing on the sounds of the night or lack thereof.

* * *

Drew had finished his assignment at the mountain at ten AM that morning and felt like he had run a marathon. Trying to pull off a job that delicate was hard enough, but with the pressure of having to go prepare for a true life or death mission in a very short time made it feel many times harder. He slammed a few energy drinks and went over the mission details that the Colonel's team had prepared and hurriedly left for the long drive to pick up and erase all traces of his and Judy's presence at the motel, and then quickly get to Mia's to prepare them for the night's festivities.

He was almost at the elevator when the Colonel stepped into the hallway blocking his path. Drew stopped and smiled shaking his friends hand.

Drew: _in friendly familiar tone_ "Colonel thanks so much for everything. Your down payment is completed exactly as specified. The plan your staff came up with looks pretty solid with what we know about security."

Col: "It is what is unknown that is going to be the deciding factor on the success or failure of this mission."

Drew: "Of course, sir, but you staff has prepared for a whole list of additional possibilities, and I feel fairly confident we have accounted for most all of these."

Col: "Well I have just one request before you go."

Drew: "Anything sir. You have no idea how grateful I am for you assistance."

Col: _stating matter-of-factly_ "I am going with you."

Drew: _shocked_ "What? You haven't been on an actual operation in years. Sir, this is highly dangerous. You are far too valuable to risk."

Col: "Call it curiosity. There is something different about this one, and I feel I would regret missing it. I want to solve this enigma that surrounds you. You don't have to tell me until we are committed. I will let you have your secrecy, but I know you too well my boy."

Drew: _resigned_ "Very well. I know it is pointless to talk you out of it. I only ask you keep an open mind."

Col: "I'm not so narrow minded as you think. Well we will find out tonight won't we?"

Drew: _unsure_ "I suppose."

Col: "Well don't let me delay you any further, you have a lot to do. Oh before I forget, you will need this."

Colonel Rich hands Drew an encrypted secure satellite phone. While Drew already knew the time and place for the staging, it never hurt to have an insurance policy in case there was any change or delay.

Drew quickly exited the mountain picking up his phone, portable drive, tablet and toolkit and packing them in with his laptop. He got to the motel that he and Judy had stayed at for over a week and cleaned everything out and wiped everything down leaving no evidence they had ever been there. Truth be told, he missed his time there with Judy. They had spent almost every waking second together there and he had many fond memories of the place. Back then it had just been the two of them against the world. Back then he had no clue what he was doing taking in a strange creature from another world. The person he was now was quite a lot different than the person he was one week and a half ago and the person he was then would not even recognize this self.

He had found a purpose. He had found something in life he truly believed in and if necessary would die for if it came to that, however he really hoped it wouldn't. Such concepts were completely alien to his former self. Many of Judy's traits such as her bravery and strength of will had rubbed off on him just enough to give him a confidence and determination he never had before. He even didn't completely detest who he was anymore. His little gray friend had no idea what she had given him, but he was resolved to do everything he could to aid her in her journey home and her mission to save her people. He didn't have any idea what he would do once she was gone, but a lot of that depended on what they found tonight. There were other Zootopians here on his Earth that needed help. There were forces still here that wished harm to her world and possibly their entire way of life. He would just focus on the mission at hand, as the Colonel would say, and worry about the rest once the mission was complete.

Once he had packed and checked out of the room, he made his way to Mia's. He had to pop some industrial strength energy drinks to stay awake on his trip and texted Judy to let her know when he would be arriving. A couple hours later exhausted and drained he found himself ringing Mia's doorbell with bags in hand.

Mia opened the door to greet him and he saw a familiar gray figure hiding behind her giving him a big smile.

Judy: _very concerned_ "You look terrible!"

Mia: "She is not wrong."

Judy: _worried_ "Have you gotten any rest or sleep?"

Drew: _tired_ "Just no time."

Judy helped him up the stairs and into his bedroom while Mia grabbed the bags and computer equipment and brought them inside. Drew weakly gave Judy an itinerary and mission brief and he fell into bed passing out. Judy helped remove his shoes and pushed him in under the covers so he would not fall out putting her ear over him to make sure he was breathing okay and brushing his hair out of his face. She was quite worried. She brought the itinerary to Mia and they studied it while Drew slept.

After the maximum time they could allow they woke him long enough to shower and change for the mission. Judy insisted he ride in the back of the SUV and rest while she and Mia navigated to the staging area over two hours away.

By the time he had arrived he almost felt human again. He found that expression quite funny with his new understanding of the universe. Judy had dressed in gray shorts and a mostly gray and white shirt. Drew had figured she could possibly blend in better with that outfit. She had packed a small bag of a few of the souvenirs of her eventful visit to the human world as she called it… a couple outfits and most importantly her utility belt stocked for combat. Drew had also prepared her a small _ipad_ with a lot of her favorite songs, videos and books. He gave her a special charger that had multiple methods of charging. He hoped at least one of those would work. It had a small solar power receptor as well so in the worst case scenario she could charge it that way.

Judy hid in the black bag on his back when the Colonel had come over to tell Drew and Mia to follow the team through the woods and into the field and wait in the back for a signal. Drew wondered why he did not ask where the third member of the team was, as he was still trying to think of an excuse for her apparent absence. The Colonel just referred to them as _T_ _he Package_ in his terms.

Col: "We complete our vehicle cover here."

They driven miles into a large hay field and then covered all the vehicles with a large camouflage tarp covered in hay. It was only visible from close down on the ground. From the air the vehicles would appear to be just a normal field of hay.

Col: "We then go 5 klicks and enter the woods. We continue 1 klick through the woods and 4.5 klicks to our target. The package will hold here while Teams A attempt a breach on the entrance while Teams B and C keep surveillance on the area. The Package will wait for the signal and follow teams B and C into the hold. Got that?"

He primarily looked toward Drew and Mia and they nodded to let him they understood.

Mia had refused to wear any camouflage. She had brought a lab coat to change into once she was inside. Her logic is that she figured that was the best way to avoid being shot. Her hypothesis was that the government would not be targeting scientists, but instead people with guns. Drew couldn't argue with her logic. While she was outside though she was wearing a black and gray shirt and black pants. Drew was dressed in black and carried a black backpack with Judy and her supplies and his toolkit, tablet, portable SSD and laptop. He wore black gloves and had a black ski mask he could pull over his face. Teams A, B and C had two people in each along with the Colonel who would accompany Team A. All seven were in camouflage and had painted faces. They carried a variety of weapons and equipment. The only one who talked to Drew and Mia was The Colonel. The other six ignored them completely.

Mia: "Not very friendly are they?"

Drew: "They are trained not to interact with The Package unless absolutely necessary. They only focus on their assignments and nothing else."

Mia: _impressed_ "I can respect that. I wish some of the scientists I work with would adapt that policy."

Judy: _muffled_ "I hope if they see me they don't freak out and shoot me."

Drew: "They are trained to be unfazed by anything although I think that would be their ultimate test. Hopefully they think you are a test by The Colonel to see if they can crack."

Judy: _muffled_ "Well I will try to stay hidden as much as possible."

The trio marched behind the teams until the came to the slight mound. They were assigned to lie down behind the mound until they received the signal.

It had been at least thirty minutes waiting before Judy had finally popped out to see what was going on and had a discussion with Drew until Mia shut them up.

Finally after ten more minutes of silence a tiny red laser light pointed at them. This startled Drew at first thinking that guns were being pointed at him and they were about to be shot until he realized with relief it was just the signal they were waiting for. The Colonel had gone back to escort them about 200 meters until they came to a large grate that had been removed. Apparently it had been covered by some vegetation, and they had removed it and had to put all alarms and cameras in the area into a loop. They climbed down a ladder attached to the side of a fifteen meter shaft and then into a long tunnel. The tunnel was quite damp and smelled of rotted vegetation and earth. It was wet in a few places as they moved forward for about ten minutes. Teams A and B were in front of them holding various scanning devices. Drew, Mia and Judy stayed about 40 meters behind them and Team C brought up the rear. A couple of times The Colonel signalled them to stop and they all froze while the forward teams checked for surveillance devices.

Drew knew they had found an old emergency escape route into the facility on some of the very oldest of the maps he had found on the server. This route was removed from any recent maps, but using satellite radar of the area they had confirmed the tunnel still existed. They had brought C4, shaped charges and special explosive string to put around an opening and create a reasonably quiet hole. Once inside the main facility, they were going to tap into the electrical system using remote switches at main circuits. These could then be rerouted at will to bypass most electrical security. They did have a small limited range EMP if absolutely necessary, but he hoped they would not have to use that as all his computer devices would be destroyed. He guessed if it was needed to get out of here in an emergency there may be no choice.

Fortunately they were able to use physical power to force open the emergency tunnel into the main facility. They were several klicks from where they needed to be. It would be slow going as Teams A and B were scouting and testing for any surveillance, security or electrical switches while Team C monitored some equipment as well as using some advanced tiny robotics which they sent far ahead with cameras and another robot that could map all halls and corridors to spot anything that was not supposed to be there.

Drew could feel Judy getting restless in the bag, and he felt very sorry for her sensing her discomfort. She had unzipped the top of the bag when she didn't hear any of The Unit team close by, but he knew she must be cramped in there and he hoped she could get out and stretch her legs sometime soon. Mia seemed to be in reasonable spirits as she seemed to be concentrating on solving some great problem of the universe while there was nothing else to do.

While it is fun to believe breaching a top secret government base would involve running around at full speed dodging cameras and robots, this was the reality. The quieter and more uneventful the better.

They finally reached a service room that had a rest area and restrooms. One of the teams and The Package were told to stay here while the other two continued tracking through the facility to clear the way. Drew wasted no time in going into a locked restroom and quickly letting Judy out of the bag. She was very cramped and he felt such compassion for her circumstance. He tried to help her stretch and get the circulation back in her extremities. He stepped outside guarding the door while she used the facilities. She looked away while he did the same once he was back inside. He wanted to keep her out of the bag as long as possible so he stayed in the restroom for about twenty minutes until he heard a soft knock and someone say it was time to go. He loaded her back up into the backpack and they continued pushing through the facility.

Fortunately at this time of night, it appeared that the facility had only minimal personnel. They knew that had a timetable to keep and tried to increase the pace as they were currently behind schedule. The robots had cleared a huge area so a good part of the way they could jog. Drew wasn't much of an athlete, but after the slow movement he enjoyed jogging as he felt he was speeding toward their destination finally. They halted and Drew knew they were close to the room as he could see signs pointing to the reactor locations. After five minutes they were allowed through a guard station and there was no sign of any guards. The only indication was a spilled cup of coffee on the floor and a clipboard that had fallen making a tent with its pages and board side. He imagined the guards were moved to a nearby room and would be out for quite awhile and restrained and gagged when they did wake. The operation was attempting to avoid casualties if at all possible which was fine with Drew as he really didn't want anyone hurt if it could be helped.

Drew and Mia were seated down the end of a hall in some chairs that seemed to be some kind of waiting area most likely for visitors to the facility. Teams A, B and C were clearing the entire rest of the main facility. This could be done a lot faster with the civilians out of the way. Drew opened up the bag and let Judy out so she could hide from view behind Drew if need be. He put the bag on the floor so she could hop back in if she heard anyone coming.

Mia: _letting out a sigh_ "Finally we are here. I am bored out of my mind. I can't think of any more puzzle exercises to solve."

Judy: "How long until they let us inside do you think?"

Drew: "I am not sure hopefully it is only a few minutes. We need to start trying to see about getting you moved.”

Judy: "I'm just happy to be… What is that?"

Judy's ears shot up and she turned glancing up the hall. Her nose begins to sniff. Everyone heard a jingle jingle and the sounds of little pads on the floor moving at fast speed.

All of a sudden they saw a large German Shepherd sniffing and growling far down the hallway!

The dog turned in their direction and started galloping at full speed down the hallway growling.

Judy gasped. Drew and Mia both have wide-eyed shocked faces.

The dog has locked eyes with Judy and turned heading straight at her!

Drew comes out of his shock just enough to jump forward between the charging security dog and Judy to stop her taking its full charge.

But instead Judy leaps over top of Drew landing in front of him and stands at her full extended height while raising her forearm rotating her arm so it faces away from her chest and pushes her arm and paw away from her body. " **STAY!** " She yells with a serious determined grimace on her face.

The Dog immediately starts to backpedal trying to stop itself slipping on the floor, and comes to a halt with Judy's extended paw right against his nose.

Judy did not flinch.

The Dog stands still in front of her and cocks his head to one side and makes a startled noise.

She then command, " **SIT!** " Curling her bicep inward making a fist or as close as you can with a paw.

The dog sits down in front of her wagging it's tail.

Drew and Mia both stare as if frozen statues with pale faces and open mouths witness this bizarre scene.

Then they hear a voice coming down the hall say…

"So **you're** what all the fuss has been about."


	27. Package Fluff

As the words they heard shocked all three members of The Package, the image of Colonel Richard Hanson came striding down the hall with a semi-smile and curious look on his face.

Mia and Drew remained looking like frozen statues except that they had slowly shifted their stare from the large dog staring at Judy to the face of The Colonel approaching.

Judy had heard the Colonel coming and could have easily jumped into the bag to avoid him seeing her, except that she couldn't move or the thing humans called a dog could possibly jump her as she knew its instinct would be to attack anything showing fear, a lack of control or something attempting to flee or run.

The Colonel came to stand behind the dog looking down at Judy.

Col: _impatiently_ "Well?"

Judy: _confused_ "Ummm... well what?"

Col: "What are you going to do with your friend there?"

Judy: _a bit startled_ "Oh yes, I forgot."

Judy raises her right arm over her head in one motion and yells " **DOWN!** " with the same grim determined expression.

The dog gets down on its belly and puts its head between its paws.

Judy lowers her arm and pats the dog on the head with her paw, " **G** **ood** **boy** **!** "

The dog opens its mouth slightly panting and wags his tail.

Col: _impressed_ "Extraordinary!"

Drew finally comes out of his shock, "You knew about her?"

The Colonel ignores his question and looks to Judy.

Col: "I think you really confused him there. He was all ready for your to flee. Impressive. You have some amazing nerve and bravery. Where did you learn to do that?"

Judy: "I was interested in these dog creatures after talking to Drew about them, so I did some research on them. I saw a video where they were talking to a dog and it understood what they said and performed the tasks. I thought at first the dogs were smart like our wolves, but they only understand the basic words in combination with the correct hand signals, and the combination reinforces the behavior. They only understand one word commands and motions… nothing very complex. I was hoping to see if they were evolving over the years and improving their verbal capacity."

Col: "Very remarkable. I think it is time we were properly introduced."

Judy: "I am Judith Hopps. My friends call me Judy. I believe you can call me Judy." She smiles and extends her paw up to shake the Colonel's hand.

The Colonel gently shakes her paw with his hand cupped so the tips of his fingers can enclose her paw.

Col: _smiling_ "Judy, I am Colonel Richard Hanson. It is my extreme pleasure to meet you. I have heard all about you... "

Drew: _shocked face_ "Judy, I didn't say a word, I swear…."

Col: "…. or should I say I heard nothing about you. But I read between the lines and sort of figured out the gaps."

Col: _tilting his head at Drew looking at Judy_ "My boy here likes to think he convinced me to take on this mission simply because he said there was some vague threat to animals and evil experiments and some plot to use the equipment here to do some unknown thing to said animals."

He puts his hand up to stop Drew from speaking.

Col: "Yes, Drew, you gave a wonderful impassioned speech about animals and their plight and how this threatened their lives. But the problem is it just didn't add up. If the case you laid out was exactly as you said, it would have been much easier to just put the evidence out to the media outlets and social media to get everything shut down. Also I just couldn't see him risking so much when there was a much safer option. So I knew that it was very important, but it had to be something that could not be taken to the public. "

Col: "Secondly the man… " The Colonel looks to Drew and continues "yes... the man I see before me is nothing like the boy I knew just a few months ago. Something significant changed him and it had to be something quite special."

Col: "And finally I cheated a bit."

Drew: _shocked_ "What?"

Col: "Well after Drew called asking for such a strange request that was completely out of character, I had my data team run a full sweep on any aliases he developed while under us and any activity on any of those cards he had developed for those same aliases. "

Drew: _gives him_ _a hurt expression_ "You spied on me?"

Col: "Well technically you created that stuff while working for us, so it was within my right to do so. But I was so curious after such an out of character action that I had them run everything there was on Drew and pull anything unusual for me and only me to look at. I found all your unusual orders. Lots of baby gap clothes, rabbit shampoo, tons of fruits, vegetables, juice mixes, and some very unusual self-defense items."

Judy: "Not the tranq pistol and ammo or electrical devices?"

Drew: _softly_ _to Judy_ "I paid cash under the table for the tranq stuff."

Col: "Well the electronic devices didn't raise any red flags as Drew buys tons of that kind of stuff. It was all the items he has never purchased that were pulled. Now in Drew's defense I cheated. The fake IDs and credit cards for those IDs are bulletproof and also had special warning triggers if anyone tried to snoop on their data to prevent exactly this scenario. But since it was created on our system we could claim ownership of the cards and it would not trigger any flags."

Col: "Looking at the evidence… either Drew got a very hungry and pampered pet rabbit and a very stylish baby or something quite unusual was going on while he was in that motel room for over a week. Combining this information with what he was not saying during his speech and presentation, I figured it had to be something quite unusual. What finally put me over was an expert analysis I had done on the Cryodyne data. The special genome markers being pulled and isolated from the lab animals being experimented on had to be from creatures with many characteristics similar to humans. Higher brain function and capacity, extended human length lifespan – the telomeres Drew… didn't think I would notice the telomeres in the animals indicating human lifespans did you?"

Drew stares at the Colonel with an open mouth.

Col: _laughing_ "I'm just kidding you Drew, I wouldn't know a telomere from a telephone. But my experts did. It is a good thing they had no idea where this data came from or what it was because they were absolutely shocked by what was in there. Don't worry, I have them monitored. If they even breath a word of anything they will disappear."

Col: "Well given all the evidence my only conclusion is that the prisoner you discussed was a highly advanced genetically modified human-like rabbit. It was the only conclusion I could find given all the evidence."

Judy goes over and stands next to Drew and he puts his arm around her and gives her a little squeeze and she smiles up at him. She keeps an eye on the dog but he seems happy to watch the conversation going on.

Drew: "Impressive work Rich. You know the only reason I didn't tell you about her and everything was I thought you would think I had gone completely bonkers crazy. It had nothing to do with not trusting you. I figured it would have just been simpler to just convince you I was impassioned and then kind of spring her on you when we got here where you could accept her as real. We always meant to introduce you eventually."

Judy: "Colonel, I think you are still missing a good bit of the puzzle and it is **important**. I am not from your Earth. I am not a genetic experiment. I am not a human rabbit hybrid. I am from a place called Zootopia and the humans here have been attempting to kidnap my people and kill and torture them to develop possible means to destroy or damage my kind. It appears that they may be preparing for an invasion and seem to have help from some unknown group on the Zootopia side of the dimensional wall."

Col: _whistles and looks at Drew_ "Well I can see why you didn't tell me this version. This one is a good bit harder for me to swallow. I could accept a human rabbit hybrid. With some of the crazy genetic manipulation going on today, I could accept this possibility."

Col: _looks at Mia_ "And am I correct in assuming that this Zootopia and dimension thing is where you come in Dr. Kinsey?"

Mia: "You Are."

Just then the secure com in The Colonels ear must have buzzed as he raised his hand to his ear listening.

Col: _listening_ "I see. Well that is good news. We'll be right there."

Col: "Well my band of misfits, it seems everything is clear finally and it is time we get to the reason we are risking the wrath of the entire US Government and potentially an inter dimensional war if what you say is true."

The group quickly headed to the central operations area. The German Shepherd security dog decided to tag along, but seemed to enjoy running along beside Judy as she hopped along. It felt wonderful seeing how happy Judy was now that she was free to hop rather than being tied up in a bag. He sensed such joy and excitement from his other worldly friend.

As they headed into the main system area The Colonel got another call on his comms.

He listed to the report and relayed the information.

Col: _looking specifically at Judy_ "Apparently they were able to unlock a highly secured storage area adjacent to the operations center and found something you will want to see."

Drew: _to Colonel_ "So that is why you insisted on coming along."

Col: _grinning_ "You didn't think I would just come on this mission because I missed your company did you?"

Drew: _laughs_ "Well no, I was pretty sure I was not that entertaining. Actually I am very glad you are here, and am very glad your meeting with Judy went so well."

Col: "I can tell she means a lot to you. I could tell that from the meeting where you were trying to pitch this preposterous plan."

Drew: _enamored_ "She really is amazing. I have never met anyone remotely like her. And I am not talking about her being rabbit."

Col: "Hmm... well I hope she takes what we found well."

Drew: _worried_ "Why, what is it?"

Their group comes to a halt next a large room with an enormous metal door similar to something that would be used in a large bank vault. One of the teams had been able to open the door, but had quite a difficult time doing so. Apparently normally locked vaults are a minor nuisance to this team. As they walked through the double wide door, they saw a row of very large cylindrical liquid gas containers. But what drew Judy's attention were the four cages along the right half of the room and especially the two of those cages that were currently occupied by animals.

Judy immediately got a wide-eyed look and dashed toward the cages at full speed stopping right in front of them. Drew came up right behind her almost out of breath. He saw a cage with a female sheep and one with a brown rabbit. The animals were unclothed and had the same white collars he had seen on both Judy and the unfortunate dissected creature… No! He corrected himself. The dissected **person** he had seen in the lab.

Judy: _pleading_ "Oh Please let them be okay… Get them out Drew! Please."

Drew carefully opened one of the cage doors after turning off the electrical current to the lock. He gently removed a small female sheep. She seemed to be breathing strong and peacefully. Judy arched her ears over the sheep listening carefully to her mouth.

Drew: "Whatever they gave her, she is really out. Since you never remembered this part, I would imagine she was given the same sedative you were given and will be out for many more hours until she is moved to a similar lab."

Judy: _impassioned_ "We have to rescue her!"

This was the Judy he knew existed but had never seen. The one who was born to protect all her citizens of Zootopia no matter what world or situation she or they found themselves in. The horror and sadness on her face spoke volumes to the compassion and empathy she felt towards those in the same retched position she had been in just a little over a week before.

Judy had gotten one of her shirts out of Drew's backpack and was covering the sheep in her unmentionable area.

Drew: "I am not exactly sure how much we can do for them at this moment. We kind of have our hands full." Seeing Judy's pleading expression as he down at her sorrowful face he added. "… but we will do everything we can. Now let's see about this other one."

Drew carefully lay the sheep down on a tarp they had found on the floor, and disabled and unlocked the second cage and examined the rabbit inside. Looking down he sees it is a male rabbit a bit larger than Judy but with slightly smaller ears and eyes and brownish fur which was white on its chest extending all the way down to the underside of its tail. While in rabbits on Earth, male rabbits tended to be slightly smaller than their female counterparts of the same breed. However on Zootopia apparently male rabbits tended to be larger and thicker and have size and proportion differences similar to human male and females. He gently lifted the bunny out and put him on his lap. He seemed to be in a similar unconscious state as the sheep, but appeared to be breathing steadily. His fur was a bit coarser than Judy's and his teeth a bit smaller.

Judy was looking very worriedly and concerned at the bunny, she looked down staring sadly at him until she realized what she was staring at and yelled "Oh no!" and winced and shielded her eyes. Apparently she saw something she shouldn't have. "Please cover him!"

Drew did his best to cover the bunny with his shirtsleeve while Judy went and found a pair of shorts for him out of her stash. He dressed the bunny while she kept her eyes averted and Drew told her it was safe to look.

Drew: "Do you know him?"

Judy: _slightly perturbed_ "Do you think all rabbits know each other on Zootopia? Do you know all humans on Earth? There are millions and millions of us!" She paused.

Judy: _apologetically_ "I'm sorry I snapped Drew… it's just… to see this done to others of us. It is so wrong. Why are these humans doing this to us?"

She looked from the bunny to the sheep. Her expression was so mournful and distressed. He realized at this moment that this is the first time she has seen any of her people in over a month. She probably lived her entire life seeing thousands of these sentient animals every day. Understanding her life as a rabbit in Bunnyburrow with such an enormous family and community, he couldn't imagine how hard the past month must have been cut off from such a huge source of support and strength. While humans usually enjoyed the company of others it was not as critical to their well-being and psyche as it was for a social animal like a rabbit used to being in huge groups.

He felt so sorry for her at this point, feeling more empathy for how alone she has been and how sorry his company had been for her in comparison. He reached out and hugged her to his chest so that her head rested slightly above the brown bunny's head which was sitting in his lap and felt her shaking a bit as she sobbed.

It was at this point he noticed the Colonel standing across the room in front of several large upright black metal cylinders. The Colonel was talking to Mia and another one of his team members. The Colonel was looking at him strangely out of the corner of his eye.

He ignored this for now and turned back to concentrate on his bunny pair.

Judy: _slightly sobbing_ "Can you remove those wretched collars?"

He moved his other hand around Judy and began to examine the collar on the brown bunny.

Drew: "It is the same as the one you had. But I am not sure where we can find one of those tools. Besides I think we need to keep them on so we can return them."

Judy: _stopping sobbing_ "Return them?"

Drew: "Well we need to prove that we can return Zootopians. Why not start with these?"

Judy: _wondering_ "How can this be done?"

Drew: "Well that is what we are here to find out."

Drew gently untangled himself from his double bunny pretzel and lifted the brown bunny and placed him next to the sheep. He and Judy headed over to see what all the excitement was about on the other side of the room.

Mia: _explaining_ "…. each of these holds 1000 liters or 1.14 tonnes."

Mia: _excited seeing Drew and Judy approach_ "Oh Drew this is incredible!"

Drew: "You'll have to catch me up."

It was at this point he got a closer look at what they were staring at. There were three very large shiny black very thick walled metal vertical cylinders with release valves and various connectors on top and numerous digital displays and pressure dials. There was some kind of refrigeration unit below these cylinders which also seemed to contain a great deal of monitoring equipment.

Mia was measuring the cylinder with a hand held device emitting a laser beam spreading across their dimensions.

Drew: "What are these?"

Mia: _excitedly_ "He-3 storage containers. Each 1.3 meters wide by 1.9 meters tall. Volume capacity 1000 liters or 1.14 tonnes of He-3. The energy in these three containers alone is 3.42 tonnes or over half the energy use each year in the USA. "

Drew: "So these are the non-organic things they have been transferring."

Mia: "It seems so. The energy potential of these is astounding. For such a small package to contain such potential energy…."

Drew: _cautiously_ "How dangerous are they?"

Mia: "Well everything is well monitored and stable. I wouldn't try taking a hammer to any of the valves if that is what you are asking."

The German Shepherd was standing next to The Colonel and between him and Judy. He seemed to be alert and contented.

Colonel: _talking to Judy_ "Are you familiar with these containers Judy?"

Judy: _shaking her head_ "I don't really know anything about Zootopia power sources, and have never heard of this thing you refer to as He-3. I would imagine even you three would be unfamiliar with a large portion of the actual technology and materials used in your civilization."

Colonel: "So I suppose asking how much more of this stuff you have is out of the question."

Judy: _shrugs_ "No Idea."

Colonel: "Well let's take a look around. We'll have your… friends…" (indicating the unconscious sheep and rabbit) "moved to the main control room. They found something which may have a lot of the answers we have been looking for. It is a communications board with what looks like communication taking place between… your homeland _(nodding to Judy)_ … and ours."

Drew noticed the Colonel was very uncomfortable using terms like dimensional and alternate plane.

They arrived shortly into a large operations theater. There were several storage areas to the side full of numerous stacked cases. Several forklifts were near these materials. On the floor there was a circular area in red about twenty meters wide. On the edges of this circle appeared to be some kind of barrier which was currently recessed into the floor. In the center of this red circle was a yellow rectangular area about five meters by ten. Just outside of this area was a raised platform a with a great deal of monitoring equipment and control panels. They could see a lot of huge thick power lines cabled into the control equipment. There also was a slight hum that could be felt under the floor near the red circle. Judy said it was especially intense around the yellow rectangular area in the middle as her ears had been cocked toward this location.

They came to a large electronic board which seemed to have a log of conversations of some sort on the wall and a keyboard and several monitors.

Mia: _excited_ "Take a look at this."

They were reading a recent conversation taking place on the board.

**We received the serum and tranqs**

**Specs on new tranqs?**

**10 Vials/Second – Similar to the assault rifles – ACRs**

**How many do you have to ship?**

**Serum for 500K Doses**

**1000 Automatic Tranqs**

**Did you receive initial AS?**

**Yes but not tested.**

**Worked on 2 Different Subjects Tested on this end.**

**Preparing more shipments of the AS for Phase II operations**

**ETA 2 Days**

**Did you receive payload?**

**3 Canisters received all checked out**

**Prepare for Live Payload**

**Ready to receive**

**Payload sent**

**Received 2 rebel subjects unharmed and intact**

**Excellent... incoming shipments?**

**3 Shipments ETA 15 Min Between**

**1 ACR and Ammo**

**2 Modified Auto Tranq and Serum**

**Ready to receive?**

**Ready**

**Sending 1**

**Received**

**Ready**

**Sending 2**

**Received**

**Ready**

**Sending 3**

**Received**

**Done on this end – Same contact window?**

**Affirmative**

**Signing Off**

They had been joined by Team A who looked down at Judy for just a brief second and then back at the board ignoring her. Everyone was discussing what all this meant.

Colonel: "What did they mean by rebel subjects? Obviously they had to mean our two sleepy heads there (nodding toward the sheep and rabbit with his head) but why rebel?"

Judy: "I really have no idea Colonel. I know of no rebel group on Zootopia."

Judy: _curious look_ "What are ACRs?"

Colonel: "Adaptive Combat Rifles"

Drew, Judy and The Colonel walked over to one of the storage areas adjacent to the central circular area. This is apparently used to hold shipments before being moved on the platform for shipment or transfer Drew guessed.

There were a number of large black plastic cases which were filled with assault rifles protected inside by a type of foam and locked into place in slots. There were stacks of these cases of assault rifles and numerous boxes of ammunition. There were some cases with special shock absorbent lining filled with a containers of a yellow-greenish liquid which is most likely the serum mentioned or possibly a counter agent. There were several other boxes of empty tranq vials and several racks of prepared cartridges loaded with darts for this automatic tranq gun they mentioned.

The Colonel pulls out one of assault rifles he calls an ACR. He removes the magazine and checks that the barrel is clear and hands it to Judy. The rifle looks absolutely ridiculous in Judy's tiny form and she has a great deal of trouble even holding it in her arms.

Colonel: "Strange, all these have modified triggers. The trigger guards on a lot of these have been removed and the trigger on many of these are extra large. They seem to have modified these so that the triggers can be expanded to fit someone with massive sized hands and well as someone with very small hands."

Drew knew the Colonel was having problems with this concept so he tried to make it a bit more palatable for him.

Drew: "If these guns are for… Judy's fellow modified animals. They have many different animals there in many different sizes and with different sized paws."

He could tell the Colonel was still skeptical of the whole Zootopia land of many different sentient animals. He decided to just let it pass.

Judy: "I am unfamiliar with this thing. It is some special kind of dart gun?"

Colonel: _surprised_ "You don't have guns in this place you are from?"

Judy: "We only use dart tranquilizer guns and some larger guns for firing nets. I am not sure what type of gun this is but it is possible we don't. "

Drew: "Judy… a ACR is a kind of gun which fires these high powered rounds…" He hands her some ammunition.

Judy: _concerned_ "These look like they could **really hurt** someone."

Drew and the Colonel exchange worried looks.

Colonel: _putting his hand on Drew's shoulder and lowering his head_ "Son. You are gonna have to take this one." The Colonel walks off to join the others.

Judy: _confused_ "What is wrong? What did I say?"

Drew takes the gun out of her paws.

Drew: _looking very sorrowful_ "Judy a gun is a device to fire a projectile like these at very high speeds. Anything hit by these projectiles could be ruptured or destroyed completely depending on the velocity, shape of the bullet and mass of the slug – the metal end. These ACRs fire hundreds of these rounds a minute and are meant to kill and maim huge numbers of people… or in this case most likely animals."

Judy stands there looking up at Drew with her ears drooped down her back and her eyes large and watery. He wished he had not had to tell her something like this, but he had long since stopped trying to shield her from the truth. It was her world that was in great peril, and she needed to know all the dangers involved.

Judy: _l_ _ _ooking down dejected__ "Sweet cheese and crackers!"

Drew: _echoing her sentiment_ "Sweet cheese and crackers indeed, Judy. Sweet cheese and crackers indeed."


	28. Contact Made

Mia: _excitedly_ "I think I figured out how to contact the other side!"

Drew, Judy, A Team and The Colonel all joined her at the communication board.

Mia: "Stay here I am going to establish a wormhole."

Colonel: "Do you know what she is talking about?"

Drew: "Sort of, she is going to establish a link to the other side which we can use to pass communication packets through."

Colonel: "Ah, that is a bit of jargon I am familiar with."

Mia stands over at the control area off to the side of the red circle area.

They all heard a humming sound getting louder. The air inside the red circle area begins to shimmer as if it is a mirage on a desert. Hot wavy lines appear in the air distorting images in the region. Then the humming reaches a high sound and stops and the shimmering instantly clears. There is still a faint hum and they could feel a large amount of energy eminating from the center of the circle.

Small red lights placed around the outside of the red circle start flashing.

Colonel: _surprised_ "Holy crap!"

Drew: "I agree."

Mia casually walks around the outside of the circle and joins the group at the communication board.

Mia: "Who should handle the communication?"

The look around at each other nervously. Then The Colonel puts his hand on Drew's shoulder.

Colonel: "Well, you're the computer guy. To boldly go where no one has gone before."

Drew: _reconciled_ "Ah, way to guilt me into it by using Trek. Playing dirty tricks on the geek. Okay fine."

Drew: _looking around at everyone_ "Well I am going to need help saying the right thing so don't everyone be quiet. Oh and by the way, I admit Uhura looks much better doing this than me."

Judy: _wondering_ "What the heck is he talking about?"

Mia: "Star Trek references. It was a television show about space exploration."

Judy: "Oh I think I saw some clips of it. I thought it was a documentary. I liked the guy with the long ears."

Drew: _laughing_ "Oh I wonder why."

Drew: "Wait there is a message coming through."

**Why are you contacting us at an unscheduled time?**

**Is something wrong?**

Drew thought of something.

**We need to send the two rebel subjects back.**

There was a long pause.

**Why is there something wrong with them?**

Drew: "Anyone got anything I can say?"

Colonel Rich whispers in Drew's ear.

Drew: _satisfied_ "Good one."

**We have oversight admin officials coming that are sensitive to research on these subjects.**

**Can't have them in the facility during their inspection.**

Drew: "Damn good bureaucratic excuse. Judy you have lots of bureaucracy there as well don't you?"

Judy: " **Way** too much."

Drew: "Guess that is one thing every culture seems to have in common."

**Do you want us to destroy them?**

Judy: _shocked expression_ "WHAT!"

Drew: "It's okay Judy, I got this."

**No they are perfect.**

**Please hold until the oversight inspections are done.**

**Will tell when to resend. Hopefully soon.**

**Okay.**

**Are you ready to receive?**

Judy: "Receive what?"

Drew: "I suppose something to allow us to send them back. Well I am hoping. Mia are we ready?"

Mia runs over to the control panel.

Mia: "I need to channel energy into the transfer matrix."

Colonel: "What the hell is she talking about?"

Drew: "Just go with it. How long?"

Mia: "Just a moment we have a full charge so it shouldn't be a problem. Okay we are good now."

**Ready.**

All of a sudden the humming sound is back and there is a feel of an intense amount of energy in the air. The recessed barrier raises out of the floor so that there is a meter high red metal wall around the entire circle. Judy hops up standing on Drew's lap so she can see over the barrier. The German Shepard makes a high pitched whining sound and runs out of the room.

Then they hear a wumpa wumpa wumpa sound coming from the area above the yellow platform in the middle. The area about five meters above the platform starts to shimmer and distort. They can see blue and yellow lights coming out of the middle of a mist that crackles with an electrical charge. The mist and colors seem to shimmer faster and faster until it is all one blur and the sound in the air is painful. Judy has pushed her ears down and buried her head into Drew's chest. Drew held her in a bear hug pressing her ears down and pushing her tightly against him and he pushes his head down so his shoulders cover his own ears. Mia grabs some large ear muffs colored bright neon green hanging on a hook near the control area and puts them on. They look like the earmuffs people who direct airplanes with the glowing orange wands use. The Colonel and A Team follow her example and grab similar earmuffs seen hanging on the walls.

After what seemed like an hour, but was actually only a few seconds the sound disappears. They can feel a wave of air and energy hit them. The blurring is gone and what is left is a giant metal plate standing on the yellow platform and two large egg looking capsules each with separate large bases stood upon the metal.

Judy and Drew lifted there heads and looked… They stared with their mouths wide open and looked at each other then stared back again staring at the platform.

Everyone else was still staring at what had just appeared out of nowhere in front of them.

The barrier around the red circle began to recess back into the floor.

The Colonel broke the silence whistling loudly, "Now **THAT** is a magic trick!"

Judy hops off his lap and hops right in front of the platform and is joined by Mia. Drew was about to join them when he remembers his job.

**Received**

**Tell us when ready – 15 mins?**

Drew: _yelling at Mia_ "How long to charge that thing?"

Mia: "Why?"

Drew: "They want to know how long until transfer. They asked if it was 15 minutes?"

Mia: "That sounds about right, let me go make sure it is recharging."

**Affirmative. Will Do.**

Drew got up to join the others examining these pods.

Mia: "Here, you lift the pod with this switch."

There is a click and a hydraulic hinge opens the top of the egg like cocoon.

Mia: "Fascinating. This polymer inside can expand and meld to fit any organic form. It is made up of a silicone substance, has a mix of boron, cadmium, carbon, bonded hydrogen as well as several unknown substances."

Mia: "This is absolutely brilliant work. I would very much like to talk to your scientists who developed this substance Judy."

Judy: _hesitantly_ "Um well. I have no idea who that is. But if I do somehow find out I will try."

Drew could tell Judy did not think this likely.

Colonel: "Guys grab the sheep and rabbit… “ Then remembers something and looks at Judy. “… the **other** rabbit. Bring them over her carefully."

The A Team head off instantly at his command.

Mia: _explaining_ "You enter into this here." _indicating the open seat "_ Put your clothes and belongings into this box here."

Mia: "The cocoon is made up of this special polymer that will shield an organic passenger from the energy and radiation encountered during the transfer. It has a gel which it injects into the polymer and it expands to hug you around your body.

Judy: "Wouldn't you suffocate?"

Mia: "Great question. It seems to have sensors to determine the organic beings air cavities and leaves an area open around this and it monitors the air composition and pumps in any oxygen and scrubs carbon dioxide or anything harmful. You could probably survive in this pod for quite awhile."

Judy: _looking uncomfortable_ "I sure wouldn't want to be in there long."

Drew: "I agree with you there. Having that gel all around you seems very disturbing."

Mia: "Well let me try. You can release me when I knock by pressing this switch here if the internal release fails. There is also an internal release inside here."

Judy: "What if you tried to open it during the transfer?"

Mia: "It will stay locked in place until the energy levels and radiation generated from the transfer dissipate."

Judy: _thinking of something_ "Wait! You said you put all your clothes and belongings in the box. Does that mean you have be naked in this thing? But you are not naked right now."

Drew: _troubled_ "Uh-oh, not this again."

Mia: _sitting in the egg_ "That is because I am not going through the transfer. You don't need to be naked to get into the egg. Just when going through the transfer. The reason you have to be unclothed is because there is a large probability that any non-organic material can fuse with the skin and fur when exposed to the dimensional event horizon. It doesn't know where the organic begins and the non-organic ends. That is why I theorize you and the others were sent through naked."

Drew: "I thought it was to hide the fact that they were sentient creatures."

Mia: "No they could have just removed their clothes prior to putting them in the labs if that was the case. It just kind of worked out it accomplished both."

Judy: _thinking of something_ "What about the collars? They had collars when sent through."

Mia: "Apparently they are made with a polymer resistant to this effect. Natural fibers of clothes are much more likely to be interpreted as part of your skin or fur than a solid polymer material."

Drew: "They also prevented any speech masking any sentient behavior from the lab subjects."

Judy: "Insidious. But who… and why?"

Mia: "Well the who is fairly obvious. It is whoever Drew is talking to right now."

Judy: "Yes, but **who** are they?"

Drew: _smiling_ "Well that is a job for a very special detective I know. No case is too big for her. Once she gets on the trail there is no stopping her. She can hop over tall buildings. She…"

Judy: _smiling and putting her paw over Drew's mouth_ "Okay, okay I get the hint."

Mia closes the pod and they watch with trepidation as the amber gel fills up until she is no longer visible. They wait what feels like five minutes, but Drew says is only a minute by his watch, and they are about to release the latch when the pod opens on it's own and the gel recedes and Mia steps out.

Mia: _smiling_ "Fascinating. Wonderful. This is truly a marvel."

The A-Team returns carrying the sheep with Judy's shirt still strategically placed over her and the boy bunny wearing Judy's shorts.

Mia: "Well let's load them in and give it a try. If it works we can finally send you home."

Judy gives her a hesitant smile. Drew can tell she is unsure of this whole process or maybe it is something else.

Drew turns the other way while Judy and Mia remove the shirt and load the sheep into the pod. They close the pod and watch it seal. Mia and Judy watch the monitors on the side to make sure the sheep is breathing okay while Drew removes the bunnies shorts and places him into the other capsule. He hands the shorts to Judy as she hops over and touches the top of the bunnies head rubbing it softly and gently rubbing his ears back so they would not get pushed down by the capsule when it closes. She has a very melancholy and tearful expression and Drew is afraid she is about to cry. She then closes the capsule top and watches it fill with gel.

Drew: _holding Judy gently_ "What's wrong, Jude?"

Judy: _looking up at him sadly_ "I just hate the thought of sending them back to… them."

Drew: _understanding_ "We can always try and take them with us. I will try and take care of them if you want."

Judy: _sad but determined_ "No it can't be helped. I am coming through after and will try and stop all this and save them on the other end. They would not want to stay here. I am sure they have worried families and friends that miss them dearly."

Drew: _hugging her_ "How are you going to stop them on the other side by yourself?"

Judy: "I will just have to escape somehow and get word to Bogo or Nick or someone to tell them what is happening."

Drew: _worried_ "That is not very certain. They surely have all kinds of staff and guards for just that kind of contingency."

Judy: _looking slightly downward talking into Drew's belly_ _as he holds her_ "I know… but I have to try."

Mia had moved over to the control area, "Guys we are ready!"

Judy and Drew quickly got off the platform hopping and sprinting over to the communications seat. Everyone puts on sound muffs this time.

Drew entered on the communications terminal the words.

**Ready now. Sending.**

He then quickly took one of the ear protectors that clearly wasn't designed for rabbit ears and held the cups on both sides pressed to Judy's inner ear and pressed the tops of the ears down so they lay over top the muffs. It was all he could think to do.

The process that had resulted in arrival repeated with the circle wall rising and the loud noise increasing although this was only a faint muffle with the earmuffs on. After about a minute… everything above the platform was just gone.

Colonel: _impressed_ "Wow, I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing that."

Drew removed the earmuffs from Judy's ears and made sure she was okay. She said yes with a sad look toward where her two fellow Zootopians had just been sitting.

She realized she was alone again. Just her and the humans. It was nice having her two unconscious friends there even if they never did wake up. She just felt normal somehow with them around. Now she was a freak again. But all the humans here in this room have treated her exceptionally well and have risked so much to help her. Maybe there was hope one day for their two worlds to have common ground and amicable relations.

**Received – All intact.**

Drew had forgotten he was communicating with this group who wished Judy and her people harm. It was very difficult talking to people he would like to do extremely vicious things to. He remembered he needed to get the pods back so he could send Judy home. He couldn't believe the moment was finally here after all this time.

**Need pods back – when can you send – 15 mins?**

There was a bit of a pause.

**Why need? Already received subjects**

Drew was going to have to make this up on his own.

**Might need to send more subjects soon.**

**Need to hide from admin oversight.**

**Most dead but a couple still alive.**

He wait for what seemed like forever… hoping… Without the pods there was no way to send Judy back. He thought _Damn I hope I didn't fuck this up after all this work to get her here._

After two minutes he got.

**15 Mins. Affirmative.**

Whew!

Drew: _yelling in Mia's direction_ "15 Minutes until we can receive the pods back. Is that good?"

Mia was over at the controls talking to Judy

Mia: _yelling back_ "Yep sounds fine. Have it charging now."

Drew stood up and felt a pain in his legs. He had forgotten how bunched up his muscles and nerves have been from all the tension of the last hour. This was so much stress. The other problem that he had was to get Judy transferred and get out of this facility fast. The morning shift would be due in an about ninety minutes and they needed to get far from here rapidly so they would not be caught and most likely executed. It would take 15 minutes to get the pods and 15 minutes more before they could send Judy. He didn't know how he was going so say goodbye to his friend. They had spent almost every moment together over the past nine days. It was the equivalent of numerous years of time with other acquaintances that were sort of like friends. He needed to keep her spirits up because she would be so nervous about what she was going to face on the other side. It was very difficult for him to ignore the possible things that could be done to her by these… He didn't even know who those motherfuckers are that would do these things to his friend. It was so frustrating.

It seemed The Colonel could sense what was going on in his young friends mind. He walked over stood beside him with his back partially to him barely leaning into him. This seemed to have the desired effect and startled Drew and interrupted those dark thoughts. Then Drew's mind seemed to ignore his old friend, and went back to thinking of those same bleak images of the horrors that may await his friend.

The Colonel nudges Drew who looks at him blankly and then follows his gaze over to Judy.

Colonel: "You have feelings for the rabbit?"

Drew didn't react for a second and then once he realized what he said he got a shocked expression on his face.

Colonel: "I see the way you look at her. Kinda like a lost puppy dog… seen that before… many times… someone deeply smitten… like off the deep end…"

Drew: _defensively_ "You're full of it. Is Alzheimer's kicking in already? She is my friend. I mean I care deeply about her and her well being. But not romantically. How in the hell would that even work, she is not even my species."

Colonel: "I just know most newlyweds I know don't look at each other like you to her."

Colonel: "Besides if it wasn't true why would you be so defensive."

Drew: _flummoxed_ "'Cause it is outrageous. It just shocked me is all."

Colonel: "Deny it all you want son, I just know that look. Besides… seen her looking at you as well."

Drew: _defensive_ "Well of course she is looking at me, we have stuff to do."

Colonel: "Not that way…”

Drew: _skeptically grumbling_ "You're nuts."

Colonel: "You know my cousin married a midg… I mean a little person, and they are one of the happiest couples I know. I learned long ago if you finally find something worthwhile… it is worth any risk to see it through..."

Drew: _muttering_ "Nuts."

It wasn't the size so much... I mean well that was a small part... but it was the fact she was a different species. An intelligent completely self aware sentient species sure. Sure Judy had told him mammals on Zootopia would have relationships with other species sometimes, but being from Earth that concept just felt completely alien. Judy had mentioned there were some unusual cross species pairings with sometimes significant size differences and they somehow made it work. But he thought dealing with human relationships was tough enough. He couldn't even imagine what kind of complications that kind of relationship would entail. Also the fact that he didn't think Judy could ever truly forgive humans after how she had been treated while she was here.

Besides... hopefully she would be returned to Zootopia with her fellow mammals and he would never see her again. A small part of him was selfish and wanted her to stay as he would miss her terribly, but he cared about her enough to want her to be back with her people.

He felt he would be satisfied imagining her being free and content with her family and her friends. After all she had been through she deserved some happiness... a lot of happiness. If she remained here on Earth, she would live in constant fear and threat. The thought of him doing anything to wrong her and make her feel bad disgusted him. He believed he would rather perish than cause her any pain physical or psychological.

He felt something tugging on his pants… He looked down and saw Judy looking at him with a very worried look on her face.

Judy: _troubled_ "Drew why are looking at me weird?"

Drew: _looking down_ _at her_ "It's nothing. I guess everything has been a bit much all at once. I am just worried about getting you transferred as soon as possible."

Judy: _hesitantly_ "Okay but..."

Drew catches the Colonel standing there looking at both of them with a smug smile on his face.

Drew: _puts his head down nervously_ "Um, you have everything packed and ready?"

Judy showed him her bag and still looking worriedly at him.

All of a sudden there was a commotion from outside the main area about fifty meters away. The Colonel got a signal on his earpiece and said.

Colonel: "Looks like the party started early folks. We just had a group of scientists enter the outer facility. They have been contained and are being escorted to us now. I was hoping to get out before this but possibly we can finally get some answers."

Mia: _yelling to Drew_ "Ready!"

**Ready**

Then now familiar humming sound is back and the recessed barrier is raised. The German Shepard who had returned whines and sprints out of the room again. Everyone prepares their earmuffs with Drew helping to prevent Judy's ears from being damaged by the sound with her own set. At the edge of the room Drew could see Team B with about eight scientists… well he assumed they were scientists as they were dressed in lab coats entering with shocked looks on their faces staring at the transfer area. They all turned back towards the entrance holding their ears, but are stopped by Team B who are armed and threatening them with assault rifles.

Drew turns back to look at the amazing sight of the dimensional wall form and open.

Then suddenly the sound is gone and the platform is back with the two egg shaped capsules.

Everyone slowly rises and removes their hands or earmuffs and stares at the object that has appeared out of nowhere. The recessed barrier then lowers itself back into the floor.

**Received**

**Tell us when ready – 15 mins?**

**Unknown - Hold**

As the scientists moved over toward the transfer area, Drew thought of something. Something that just might give Judy a chance.

Drew: _yelling to Mia_ "Mia! Do they need to do anything on their end to receive?"

Mia: "What do you mean?"

Drew: "I mean once it is charged up, can you just send no matter what they say?"

Mia: "Well all the energy and transformation is on this end not theirs. I get what you are thinking at. There is no way they can stop it. You could send Judy even if they weren't at their controls. Theirs is mainly just a communication device. The one thing you do risk is if they haven't cleared the platform prior to your transfer. Well I am not sure what would happen, but it would not be pleasant."

Drew: "Well since we have the transfer sled, I can't see them putting anything near the receiving end. They would just wait for us to send a shipment first."

Mia: "That is logical."

**ETA over an hour.**

**Keeping window open.**

**Will contact in an hour to update status.**

Judy has been watching what he has been typing.

**Understood – in an hour then**

Judy: _hopeful_ "Great idea Drew, we can send me in 15 minutes, and they would most likely be gone for another 45 minutes. It would give me a nice window to escape."

Drew: "Well it would give you a chance. The only problem is that the arrival of that thing is not quiet. You can hear it from far away. So they would know something is up and come running back."

Judy: "Well hopefully it will give me enough time to escape. At least it gives me a far greater chance of success."

Drew: "Well that is certainly better than what the chances were before."


	29. In Defense of Humanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally find out why the humans have been doing what they have been doing and we finally start the crazy race to the finish. Thanks for your patience. Enjoy.

The group of scientists had arrived and had been talking heatedly with each other. One of the scientists stepped forward… he recognizes the name from the name tag… Dr. Kenneth Luxor.

Luxor: _angrily_ "What have you done! Do you have any idea what forces you are messing with… you could destroy everything for miles!"

Mia: _waving at him with a big smile on her face_ "Ken! So good to see you again. Where have you been hiding for the past two years. Oh wait… I believe right here."

Luxor: _looking a bit startled and squinting a bit staring at Mia_ "Kinsey… that you? Well that explains why you haven't blown this place up. But what the hell are you doing mixed up in all this?"

Mia: _looking amused_ "Well I am just a bit perturbed and insulted I was not invited to this little party you guys have been having without me. You realize if I had been here instead, you wouldn't have needed all those 'associates' of yours and could have saved a bundle on your budget."

Luxor: "Mia, I had recommend you for the project. But they said they couldn't clear you. I don't know why. Something about undesirable associations."

Mia: _thoughtfully_ "Ah… I can see that… well be that as it may. I am quite impressed with the setup you have here. But I imagine my compatriots have some questions for you."

Everyone looks to The Colonel who looks at Drew

Col: "It's your party son. Time to unwrap some presents."

Drew: _speaking to the scientists with an accusing tone_ "Well I suppose the first and foremost question is. Why have you been taking intelligent evolved sentient beings and putting them through constant torture, mutilation and dismemberment? Why have you not actually talked to these intelligent beings and treated them with the respect and esteem they deserve? Is this how we treat our first contact with extraterrestrial intelligent beings?"

Judy: _whispering to Drew_ "Extraterrestrial?"

Drew: _whispering to Judy_ "It just means anything beyond our Earth"

Judy: _looking a bit concerned_ "In most all your movies with extraterrestrials, things seem to rarely end well for either party."

Drew: _whispering to Judy_ "Those are just movies not reality. Well I hope not our reality."

Luxor: _looking at Drew and Judy_ "Ah, I understand you have been speaking to the rebels. We had talked to one briefly. He claimed to not be a rebel and was not oppressing our allies on the other side just as they had said he would. He did not know how he got here and refused to admit he was a terrorist for the enemy group."

Judy: _speaking angrily_ "Who told you he was a terrorist? Who are you allied with? We are not rebels… I have never heard of any rebel groups on Zootopia. He was telling you the truth. I was tracking all these animals who had been... kidnapped… I believe your word is… there were five or six I believe innocent citizens who had been abducted from the homes and off the street with no trace. I am a detective in ZPD and was searching for these citizens when I was abducted as well, and found myself locked in a small cage, naked and collared so I could not speak. I believe you have been working with some kind of rogue group from my world who has been plotting against the citizens of Zootopia and is preparing to inflict appalling harm against its people." _Judy indicates the caches of weapons around the room._

Drew notices Judy is holding her bag close and fingering something inside it and hears a click. Uh oh, her utility belt. He is afraid she is going to attack the scientists so he moves next to her and touches her arm in the bag and whispers, "Let's try and get some answers first." She nods at him.

Luxor: _annoyed_ "Little rabbit… you are eloquent, I will give you that. Far more so that the other of your kind that we spoke to earlier. We interrogated him further, but could not get any more useful information out of him. What you describe sounds quite preposterous as we have been dealing with the people who run the power for your city. They have provided us a great deal of data supporting what we call He-3 as well as providing quite a large supply of He-3 and specifications on the most efficient use of this material in the power plants of your world. Their knowledge in this area is impressive and indisputable as their scientists were able to answer all our questions immediately. And finally, you claim to be a Detective so I am assuming you are in law enforcement of some sort?" _Judy nods her head_ "Well I rest my case right there… absolutely **preposterous**."

Drew sees that Judy is about to explode so he tries to diffuse the situation and gets behind her and wraps his arms over her in a hug to try and calm her. He can tell she is still steamed but has calmed a bit. He sends some calming and comforting thoughts to her.

Drew: "Dr. Luxor, it may very well be that the people with whom you have been in contact work at this power plant for Zootopia. I am not disputing that. But that does not mean that they are the rightful representatives of Zootopia. They could still be a rogue group with malicious plans for the innocent citizens of Judy's world. And also before you disparage her for being a police officer, would you not give her the courtesy of the same test as you applied to these power plant scientists? How about asking her pertinent questions to test her knowledge of law enforcement. She has demonstrated this knowledge to me on numerous occasions."

Drew: "But I guess my main question that needs to be answered is... why? Why have you done this?"

Luxor: _in an_ _insulted_ _haughty_ _tone_ "I don't need to justify myself to you. You are what…" Looking at Drew next to the communications equipment. "a communications tech… or computer tech… why should I bother justifying myself to you or your rebel friend?"

Colonel: _pointing a gun in the scientists general direction_ "Oh lets just say it would be in your best interests to answer his, or the young lady's" ( _indicating Judy_ ) "… questions truthfully and completely… and **respectfully.** "

Luxor: _sighs_ "Very well. We have negotiated an accord to save our planet and the human race from self destruction."

Luxor sees he got the attention of everyone with that statement and gets a satisfied smirk on his face.

"We had been experimenting for several years at this absolute location on Earth" _pointing at the yellow platform_ "There was a lot of evidence of some temporal weakness at this point. Apparently according to the Zootopians we talked to at the power plant, there had been an accident there around twenty-five years ago where there was a rupture in the containment vessel of the reaction chamber and some storage containers. Anyway, they lost containment and a huge burst of energy was released all at once at that point. They had damaged the power plant significantly, but the radiation was non-lethal; however the explosive power of such an energy concussive blast is lethal to anything within its range. Scientists there believed that this caused a temporal weakness at that point which seems to have created a pathway between dimensions. Now the weakness was just that. There was no way to send things through at that point but with proper focused energy sources and a negative energy generator such a hole could be opened temporarily at that point.

What we had detected at that weakness was a cache of Helium 3. We built a matrix to store massive amounts of energy, think of it like an array of say a million batteries… and would charge them all up until we had a large enough stored charge and we attempted to open the rift to collect the He-3 cache. Well we succeeded in opening up this portal and were able to collect the He-3, but with a terrible efficiency quotient and captured only 30% of the He-3 and lost the rest to the rift or the atmosphere. But evidence indicated the strong possibility of other things in that location. So we built a small reactor using the He-3 captured and used the energy to help build a better charging source for the matrix. We did testing for a long time. And then when the rift was open we were surprised to pick up communication coming from the open rift.

After a good bit of research we figured out how to transmit and receive information that could pass through the rift. It was then that we discovered the Zootopians, and we had discussed what had happened with the rift in the past. We apologized about the mishap with the He-3 capture as we had no idea that we were merely picking up He-3 stored at their facility. We told these beings we needed higher quantities of He-3 so that we could then build several reactors so we could power them for huge amounts of energy in order to actually transfer matter between the dimensions. So we built three huge reactors and used the He-3 we had previously captured to initially power the reactors for several attempts at transferring matter. We then tried several tests in conjunction with many objects until we felt comfortable with sending a small container of He-3. The test was successful and everything worked perfectly. So we were shipped three large containers of about 1.17 tonnes each of He-3 to be dedicated to these reactors for transferring matter.

We however had obligations to our Zootopian allies. They had told us of their problems with a rebel faction that were terrorizing their people and oppressing them. We offered to help them as we had a strong trading relationship and had cooperation between both sides for many years. We agreed to provide them assault rifles, pistols, explosives and ammunition as well as technology. Recently they wanted us to determine if we could develop anything to affect the savage behavior of these rebels. Apparently they had been developing plans to attempt sending test subjects for quite a while. They had spent years developing the technology to transfer organic beings safely between dimensions and had already developed the organic transfer pods. Using these pods, they provided us with six rebels over several days. They sent them through with a special device which repressed speech."

Drew: "Was the true nature of these beings known to the people researching them and experimenting on them?"

Luxor: "Their true nature was only known by a few high level administrators, government officials handling the negotiation and the eight of us of course. It would have been difficult for the people doing experimentation on these subjects if they knew the truth about them. The research obtained from them was vital to aiding our allies. You see, with the research we could develop a means to disable the rebel species' population without having to kill them. We also developed a means for them to spread the serum to massive numbers at one time. We were providing them a non-lethal method of dealing with factions of their population so that they could gain back control of parts of Zootopia they had lost from this rebel incursion especially many additional power plants. With these power plants they had agreed to supply us with a great deal more of this He-3."

Drew: "To what end… how does obtaining all this additional He-3 save our planet?"

Luxor: _annoyed_ "I was getting to that. Currently the Earth was being destroyed by the use of massive amounts of fossil fuels. With the rise of enormous industrial nations such as China and India this use had increased several fold and pollution levels, carbon levels and chemicals such as sulfur dioxide were continuing to rise to dangerous levels. In addition massive methane pockets in the ocean were being released as a by product of these emissions compounding the problem even more. We were poisoning ourselves and poisoning our planet. But the cost was much greater as nations would use any method to obtain more of the fuels, and wars and conflicts around the globe were a result. Governments such as ours would support certain countries which were receptive to providing more of these fuels and other governments would do the same supporting other sides. The result was the world was bankrolling wars and suffering and death in these regions. The resulting anger of these peoples led to a backlash against the world with terrorism becoming rampant across the globe. The incessant demand to obtain and use more and more of these fuels was leading to climax which would ultimately mean the destruction of humanity as their fuels became more scarce and the conflict more intense. We would either destroy ourselves through the destruction of our planet or we would destroy ourselves through the resulting global conflicts which could easily result in a nuclear Armageddon."

Drew: "Well a lot of that is true, but some sounds a bit alarmist. But regardless how could the He-3 obtained save the planet."

Luxor: "Unfortunately things that may be considered alarmist are not accepted until it is far too late to avoid the disaster that results. The world was heading toward self-destruction and a global conflict which was the result of greater and greater demand for these dwindling resources. The pollution and poisoning of the Earth would continue to rise until the effects were irreversible and the atmosphere would become unable to sustain life. So a plan was formed in secret, as our government was aware of our potential to obtain large enough amounts of this material which could replace the need for the use of these fossil fuels. We could take this material, the He-3, and adapt it to our countries needs and eventually remove the need to use any fossil fuels altogether once devices were adapted and mandated to run on the completely clean generated electricity with no detrimental effects on the environment."

Luxor: "But adapting our country to only run on clean generated electricity and other clean renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro and countless others in development only solved a minor part of the global problem. Unless other countries of the world followed suit the result would still be the same but only take longer. So we offered the world a solution. These countries would build He-3 reactors around the globe and we would provide them the He-3 obtained from Zootopia in exchange for the reduction in fossil fuel use corresponding to the energy output obtained from this He-3. Our Zootopian friends had provided us a great deal of research on the most efficient use for generating the maximum possible output and the resulting generators would be as efficient as possible thanks to the numerous decades of research done by Zootopian scientists. Thus we would provide a free energy source to the world so that they would gradually eliminate the use of fossil fuels altogether and use the clean energy provided. "

Luxor: "The final coup de grace was the boon of this fuel to use in space exploration. This fuel could provide a massive power source with only a small footprint allowing space exploration vehicles unheard of speeds. Humanity could finally freely explore the solar system resulting in colonization of other worlds and the discovery and mining of numerous substances in short supply on earth such as He-3 itself. Other substances include gold, iridium, silver, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium and tungsten for transport back to Earth to replenish dwindling supplies. Other substances such as iron, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, nickle, aluminum and titanium could be used for the construction of more and more space exploration vehicles constructing them in space rather than the need to send them from Earth. They could obtain water and oxygen to sustain astronauts; as well as hydrogen, ammonia, and oxygen for use as additional rocket propellant. Thus exploration in space would be self sustaining and not require any Earth resources, but instead would act as a conduit to replenish immensely needed resources."

Luxor: "In other words, our partnership with the Zootopians would halt the current path of eminent destruction both humanity and the world was facing, and instead usher in a new dawn of hope and prosperity for the human race."

There was a stunned silence in the room as everyone took in this new information.

It was Judy who first spoke up.

Judy: "But you could have done it a different way without the abduction, experimentation and torture of innocent intelligent beings. You could have done it without the massive death, bloodshed or even worse things these weapons you have provided will do to our peaceful Zootopia. The suffering you will bring to our land with your actions is reprehensible and unnecessary. I am sure our people would have negotiated with you for a peaceful solution. The real Zootopians are peaceful giving people who would accept humans as fellow mammals and work to build a partnership that would help both our peoples to flourish."

Luxor: "We could not take the chance. We had an opportunity and we took it. We were dealing with your people as far as we knew. We may still be doing that, how do we know we are not?"

Judy: _defiantly_ "Because my people would not have sent innocent citizens as sacrifices. My people would not demand weapons. My people would not want genetic experiments done on them."

Luxor: "I am sorry little rabbit-like creature, but I don't know your people. The beings we have been dealing with said they were fighting a war, and that your kind had enslaved them, persecuted them and plotted against them. That they were fighting for their identity and survival. Everyone thinks their side is the right side. They said they needed help and in exchange for that help they would provide us the material to help save our planet and our species. Regardless of the truth of your words my conscience is clean…"

Judy was stunned… she stood there with her mouth open.

Drew stood behind and put his arms down over her chest holding her and stared in stunned silence as well.

It was at that point they heard an explosion from outside the front entrance. The Colonel immediately listened on his earpiece.

Col: _with a raised voice_ "Well looks like we have party crashers. We have a breach in the outer perimeter and incoming enemy combatants using lethal force. I believe this is your queue to do whatever it is that you wanted to do here. Good luck my gray long eared friend. I hope you can stop this destruction coming to your land. We will hold them off as long as we can!"

Mia: _yelling at Drew and Judy_ "You have to go NOW!"

Judy and Drew grabbed their bags and ran to the yellow platform in the middle. The scientists recoiled in terror backing up to a side of the room away from the fight near the entrance. Gunfire could be heard coming from the entry followed by several explosions and shouting.

Drew saw one of the agents from Team C run in covered in blood and yelling to fall back into a defensive position. The remaining team members from teams B and C sprinted through the doorway. As soon as they were past, members of Team A detonated a large explosion at the entrance causing the entire ceiling to collapse blocking the entrance. However one member of team B was shot several times in the back with blood and pieces of flesh exploding from his front. He collapsed in a heap dead.

Drew was helping to prepare Judy to enter the pod.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see some of the scientists removing what looked to be a pistol of some kind and loading it, then moving forward. Another scientist had picked up the fallen rifle from the dead team member and was moving toward the platform aiming at Drew and Judy.

Luxor yelled above the din," **DO NOT KILL THE TEST SUBJECT!** "

The scientist with the assault rifle stopped, and the other scientist with the pistol ran forward aiming at Drew and Judy.

The Colonel and remaining team members were focused on the front entrance as yelling and explosions were heard coming from the other side.

The Colonel ran partially towards Drew.

Col: _yelling at Drew_ " **IF YOU STAY HERE YOU WILL DIE!** "

Col: _yelling_ " **GO** with her… **Help her** …"

Drew: _yelling to Mia_ "Can a human go with her?"

Mia: _yelling back_ "I am not sure. Nothing organic that large has been sent through. But I think if I used this special energy reserve I believe there may be enough power!"

Drew: _yelling to Mia_ "What about you? You will die."

Mia: _yelling back_ "We can't all go. Besides they won't harm me… I am an unarmed scientist… I will be fine… Go… help your friend. It will take a couple minutes to make the energy modifications. Hurry!"

Suddenly Judy shouts, "Owwww!" As she is hit by the scientist firing his pistol. He had fired several shots and had manually reloaded several times. Apparently he got lucky this time.

Drew: _turning to the sound of Judy's voice behind him_ "Judy!"

Judy: _falling to the ground_ "Oh… I don't feel so good."

When Judy had yelled the Colonel had turned from the commotion at the front and noticed the scientist with pistol and fired at him hitting him in the shoulder knocking him back several feet. The scientist fell to the ground. He then aimed toward the other scientist with the assault rifle and fired a shot which glanced off the rifle. The scientist dropped the rifle and ran screaming back to the corner where the other scientists were hunched down covering their heads.

More explosions and gunfire came from the entrance as apparently they had cleared a small opening and were firing through it. The Colonel and the other team members were firing suppressing fire back through the opening.

Drew picked Judy up off the ground. She was not dead but only unconscious thankfully. He removed the dart from her side and angrily threw it to the ground shattered it. He quickly removed her clothing and placed her into the seat of the pod. He tossed her clothing, bag and utility belt into the plastic container for holding non-organics. He quickly closed the lid on the pod and saw it start to fill with the silicon gel engulfing Judy's small form until nothing could be seen but the amber gel inside.

A bullet bounced off the pod as Drew instinctively dropped down on the floor. He heard it whizz by in another direction. He got up and examined the pod. It appeared to be unharmed.

Drew moved behind the second pod ducking for cover. He quickly removed his clothing and tossed it and his bag into it's non-organic receptacle and waited behind the pod wincing as occasional bullets bounced off everything around him.

Drew thought at that moment _I didn't think the day could get any stranger, but here I am standing here buck naked behind a pod dodging bullets. I didn't see that one coming when I woke up._

Mia: _yelling loud_ " **30 SECONDS…** "

Drew heard bullets whizzing around him. He heard screams and heard an explosion from the front. He sees several large black assault rifles with red laser points moving through the breach and then heard several shots and sees the heads of two other team members explode and their bodies drop to the floor.

The Colonel is back at the communications computer around the corner from the entrance and he tosses a grenade and fires his rifle at the breaching soldiers drawing their fire.

Colonel: _yelling to the right at Drew while firing at the soldiers_ " **GOOD LUCK SON…** "

Mia: _screaming_ "NOW!"

Drew leapt into the cocoon and shut the top. He began to feel the gel fill the pod around him. The last thing he saw was a large explosion right near where the Colonel was standing as pieces of the communication station rain downed everywhere. A bullet bounced off his pod. Then all he sees is an amber glow. He feels the platform under him vibrating and he hears the wumpa wumpa sound surrounding him, but it is very muffled like it is far away. He can hear crackling sounds as if there is massive energy in the very air around him and the vibration becomes more and more intense and then…

Nothing… his mind sees only blackness… then colors… all the colors of the visible spectrum shooting from in front of him in long lines passing by him on all sides. As they pass, he senses intelligence… somehow… then he feels like all the cells in his body have been ripped apart at once hanging suspended from each other… then all of a sudden all the cells slam back together like a door being slammed at full strength. He feels himself moving faster and faster through a hallway of light and senses beings of some kind behind the light…

A strange thought comes into his head… a thought that makes him smile for some reason… I wonder if this is the reason all the beings who have traveled through this portal have been unconscious… I guess Mia should have thought about that before…

He now realizes he is delusional… his mind can't make sense of what is happening… his neurons are firing bringing up jumbled images from his past... hoping something will make some sense… but it does not. The world is upside down. Up is down. Black is white. The world he knows no longer exists. He no longer exists. Cold blackness envelopes him… peaceful nothingness embraces him… he is no more.


	30. A World Away

The world had collapsed upon itself. A being of energy floated free of the constraints of a physical existence. There was no more pain, no more urges, no hate, no jealousy, there was only a feeling of oneness with the universe. A transcendental existence was so peaceful. All the concerns and stresses, all the worry and fears, everything was gone. It was a wondrous feeling being free and unconstrained. You could go anywhere in an instant. You needed no material possessions as you needed nothing and yet owned everything. The knowledge of the universe was yours. All the questions were answered. All the mysteries were solved. The peace and tranquility were perfection. Everything was perfect. Yet something was missing. How could this be? Something that could not be quantified… something tied to the material world… to the physical being… something drawing you back to the physical plane of existence… wait… all the knowledge of the universe… all of the possibilities… but the draw of the force was too strong… this thing called love was too powerful… more powerful than all the forces in the universe.

Drew awoke with a start. Where the hell was he? All he could see was brownish orange. It was like he had been swallowed by a pumpkin of some kind… or maybe he was an ancient insect trapped in amber for all eternity. It took him several moments to remotely know even who he was let alone where he was. It came back to him. He was Drew… a human… he had a mission… a purpose of some kind. He had some reason to be here… he just knew it! All of a suddenly it was as if the entire world came flying out of nowhere and slammed into his head all at once with a Bang! Judy! It hit him all at once… his reason for being here… she was in trouble… appalling trouble! He remembered Mia and something about a switch. He found it with his trembling fingers. The top of this pumpkin rose up and the guts of it pulled away leaving him free.

He then heard a klaxon bellowing out its warning call. Oh this did not bode well. He tried to rise out of this egg-like pod, but his legs felt so weak and his arms had no strength. He gradually was able to strain enough to rise up just enough to get on the open side of the pod and then tumbled out on the ground. He found himself naked as the day he was born and thought at first he must have drunken WAY too much at a party until he remembered where he was… or at least where he thought he was. Gradually the strength came back, and he pushed himself up against the side of the pod and then remembered why he was here. He looked a short distance away and saw another egg shaped pod filled with amber inside. He stumbled across the divide towards the other pod on unsteady legs which nearly gave out on him until he collapsed onto the edge of the other pod and raised himself up and released its latch.

The top of this pod pops open and the amber gel recedes until two large gray ears and a small gray creature appear in the seat below. Judy! He reaches down and pulls her out holding her against his chest. She is warm and breathing, good. He then flips a switch and releases her non-organic storage and grabs the contents and slings it over his shoulder. He then stumbles back towards the original pod holding Judy tight in one arm with as much strength as he could muster while holding out his other arm to try and brace himself for the… wham… he slams into the other pod holding himself up with his outstretched arm.

He releases the contents of this second non-organic container and pulls on it tossing the contents onto the floor below. He lets himself slide down the side of the pod with his back to it and Judy on his lap as he collapses to the ground out of energy completely spent. He sits stunned for a few seconds but hears the sound of the klaxon and knows he has to hurry. He pulls on his shorts, pants and shirt and then socks and shoes. And then turns to dress Judy. He forgot how beautiful her full gray form was… he had not seen it in quite awhile… well he did when he put her in the pod, but he couldn't even remember anything at that point since he was a bit distracted not dying and all. He never understood why she insisted on hiding it. But he respected her wishes and quickly dressed her as best he could. He put her bag into his large one and slung the pack over his shoulder. He picked her up, cradling her unconscious form in his arms and looked around the room for an escape.

There were sounds of footsteps running around outside. Well not exactly like the footsteps he was used to, he knew that. It sounded like padding and clicking sounds and some tromping sounds of heavier feet, but for some reason a lot of them were running past and some were running away from where he was. Why wouldn't they all be coming into this room to capture them? All of a sudden he felt something move. It scared him to death until he realized it was the gray form in his arms. He saw Judy yawn and stretch like she had awoken from a month long nap. Her eyes slowly opened up so they were half-lidded and she seemed very confused. He slid behind the platform the pods were resting on so they were not visible from the room entryway and put her down gently on the floor.

She lay on her side and gradually opened her eyes and looked at him. He saw recognition there definitely… but something was wrong… very wrong. She slowly rose up, but instead of rising straight up on her legs she hunched over forwards with her arms and front paws touching the ground. She wiggled her pink nose and sniffed. Then she took a tentative hop. Then another hop and then a hop hop back to him. She was still on all fours and gently rubbed against his side.

Drew: _very worried_ "Judy, Are you okay?"

Judy looked up at him with no expression. Then she looked down and sat there her nose breathing rapidly and he could feel her heart beat with a quick thump thump.

He picked her up placing her on his lap facing him looking deep into her eyes.

They were the same beautiful eyes he remembered but they weren't. There was nothing behind those eyes. It was as if she was unconscious yet she was fully awake.

Drew: _extremely worried_ "Judy! What's wrong with you?"

There was no response from her.

Drew: _desperate_ "Judy, answer me **PLEASE**!"

There was something nagging at him. Something he was forgetting. Something to do with… with a dart. He remember her being hit with a dart before going into the pod. He thought it was just a tranquilizer. He got a cold chill all over his body. This was no tranquilizer.

Drew: _frantic_ "Judy, oh God what have they **done** to you!"

She looks up at him with no expression. There is nothing behind those eyes.

He cradled her in his arms bending down hugging her to him feeling her heart beating against his chest, and began rocking back and forth.

He had ultimately failed her. He gotten her body home to her Zootopia but her mind was lost.

He then hears a voice above him yell.

Badger: _surprised_ "What the fu… Guards…. **GUARDS**!"

He looks up to see a large badger wearing glasses and a white lab coat holding a clipboard. Apparently it must have wandered around the corner and discovered them.

The badger runs back around the corner and he can hear the sound of heavy padded feet coming from around the entrance he saw to the room. He puts Judy down behind him and grasps wildly for the pack. He remembered Judy's defense belt and quickly grabs for it… he reaches inside and grabs the first thing he can feel and pulls out a small spray bottle, he feels something else and pulls out a taser, just as large tiger and a black panther of some sort come around the corner standing on two legs and wearing dark blue uniforms. If he hadn't been in fear for his life, Drew would have marveled at such a sight. As it was he was afraid it was the last sight he would ever see. He crouched with Judy in his lap facing partially away from the cats shielding her from view while holding the spray up in one hand and the taser in the other.

The tiger and panther had shocked expressions on their faces, but then the shocked look turns to angry grimaces and they growled and approached Drew claws out. He turned his back to them holding Judy cradled in his lap protecting her the best he could. He held his arm out to the side and sprayed the mace at the tiger and panther's faces he heard them curse and growl and he held the taser out charged. He then waited for the inevitable claws to dig deep into his back… to feel the flesh torn from his back… to feel teeth against his neck… he waited… and heard…

 **Whack!** "Oh… hey!" **Whump!** He sees a form in the back disappear from sight.

He feels something large make contact with the taser giving it a shock, but feels a paw knock the taser out of his hand, and then claws start to dig against his side and then…

 **Whack!** And he hears a yelp and the claws in his side disappear as fast as they had come, and felt the large form that was on his back pull off him then… Whack Whack **Whump!**

He then turns his head with curiosity stretching to look over the bodies of the large cats and sees a baseball bat and two large wide triangular tan brown ears. Then he hears an impossible deep voice bellow out...

"You want more of this **motherfuckers**! I didn't think so." He slowly turns his body sideways holding Judy in his lap and sees it is a small tan brown fox behind those ears. His mind tells him that these are called fennec foxes… at least his mind thinks so… but this one seems a good bit bigger than the ones he had seen and quite a whole lot angrier.

The fox then looks at Drew with a very surprised look on his face. He then looks down to the form in Drew's lap and gets an even more surprised look as his eyes get impossibly wide.

Then something bounds in the air behind the fox leaping over it. Drew instinctively winces and shifts his back to this force shielding Judy from the impact.

Only there isn't an impact but a soft sound hitting the floor and Judy… what no that is not Judy… but a very Judy-like rabbit is staring at him with a very shocked look on it's face, and then looks down at the form Drew is cradling in his lap and gasps.

* * *

When Tala heard Finnick said someone needs our help, she wondered why he would risk getting involved. The entire place was in a panic. Warning sirens had been sounding and animals were running everywhere. They had been in the process of escaping the facility back through the ventilation when they had heard it. The sound of the _transfer_ they called it. It was unmistakable as they had just heard it 15-20 minutes before.

About 40 minutes ago they had seen a sheep and rabbit returned from somewhere in the egg pod like things. The same sheep and rabbit they had seen sent many hours before. They had no idea why someone would go to all the trouble of sending them somewhere and then sending them right back. The scientists said is was some kind of bureaucratic issue. Then just awhile after this they had sent the same pods back but empty this time.

The scientists were all talking to each other rapidly sounding very concerned as this seemed highly unusual having things sent back or sending empty pods somewhere. After they watched them remove the collared and naked unconscious sheep and brown bunny, they saw them wheel these same mammals away on similar carts that Finnick had used to wheel her here. Then they returned those same pods to some unknown place apparently as the scientists were all talking about how highly unusual all of this was. Finnick and her had no idea what was going on, but they figured something unusual must be occurring and would just have to hang on and see what happened. That is when the klaxons went off and all hell broke loose.

She heard voices on the walkie communication devices some of the scientists were wearing saying there was an attack and they needed personnel to the front of the facility immediately and to follow emergency protocol 45. Scientists started grabbing every paper, every computer device, pretty much anything not nailed down, and began running in every direction. Tala had asked Finnick what he thought was going on.

Fin: "Got me kid… looks like they are under an invasion. But I am thinking this is the best time to get out of here. Most likely they would just ignore us for the most part, and we might be able to just walk out the front."

Tala: "What about Judy?"

Fin: "Well I don't see her here. We need get one of those scientists alone and get some answers out of them I believe."

Finnick had an angry expression on his face and started making pounding motions punching his curled paw into his other open paw to indicate his intentions.

Tala: "Think we could grab one on the way out?"

Fin: "Yeah I if you can trip one… I can take care of the rest."

He grabs Betty in the middle and shows it to her to demonstrate what he planned to do to the scientist.

Fin: "We could grab a cart and maybe wheel you and the scientist out. Hopefully in the confusion everyone will ignore us. Regardless, if we can get out of this place we could try and get some help."

Tala: "Sounds like a really good plan."

Fin: "Let's use the vent tunnels to make sure we are not seen."

Finnick took off in the tunnel at a speed far greater than they had used getting to the transfer room as they didn't really need to worry about being heard. No one would hear them above the klaxons blasting all around them. Tala scooted behind him as fast as possible. She may be larger than him but she was young and agile so she kept up with him easily.

They had reached the entry vent grate they had initially used to enter the ventilation system, and Finnick had just kicked it open when they heard a sound. The unmistakable sound they had heard several times before. Something was incoming in the transfer system.

Finnick: "Fuck Me! Back back…"

Tala immediately turned around in the narrow tunnel and started scooting back the way they had just come as fast as she could. The adrenaline in her system caused by this sound on top of the screaming klaxons shot through her like a rocket and she felt that feeling again she had missed so much. It was the feeling she had when fleeing for her life from the vixen. It was cold and hot at the same time. She felt alive again! She took off scooting like an express train.

Finnick: "Fuck! Tala wait damn it. Holy crap that bunny is fast. "

She could hear Finnick grunting and cursing from behind her trying to keep up. Damn how she wished she was out of this tunnel and running. She could be there in an instant, but she decided she was going to make the best time she could. It took several minutes to maneuver through all the tunnels and winding turns of the ventilation system. There were numerous places where it narrowed and they had to squeeze through. She guessed it had been at least five or more minutes since the transfer noise had sounded when they reached the grate. She heard Finnick panting and running as fast as he could in the narrow confines of the tunnel.

Finnick: _cautiosly_ "Wait Tal, we need to make sure what is in the room first."

Tala was peered through the vent and didn't see anything. Just as she got to the vent, she saw a badger scientist they had seen before looking around the room. The badger was searching inside the pods and looking under equipment. She could see her move around a corner to the left of the platform and stop as if frozen in place. Finnick had arrived looking out the vent. They heard the badger yell for guards and took off.

Tala: _curious_ "What do you think it is?"

Fin: "Well whatever it is I think we need to help."

Tala: _cautious_ "Why? What if it is something dangerous?"

Fin: "Well the enemy of my enemy is my friend whatever it may be."

He didn't wait for Tala to respond and kicked the vent gate free tumbling out just as two large cat guards ran past towards the corner.

She hopped behind him fast but apparently when Finnick had his mind set on dishing out punishment he was quick on his feet. She followed him around the corner and heard a Whack! Finnick had swung the bat in a sweeping motion hammering the tiger in the shins taking both feet out. He didn't wait for him to land he swung his bat anticipating where the tiger would fall. The bat and the head of tiger met with a big crack and crunching sound. She saw the panther shudder from a shock of some sort but continued forward jumping onto something digging its claws into both sides of it. Finnick wasted no time gloating about the tiger. He took the end of the bat swinging it up between the panthers legs with all his force. The panther immediately removed his claws from his victim and gasped. He pulled away and turned toward the fennec. Finnick brought the bat down full force on the panther's ankle. She heard a loud crunch. The panther instinctively turned around and fell down grabbing his ankle. Finnick immediately slammer the panther in the head with his paw full of brass knuckles spinning the panthers head to the side instantly. She saw the panthers head crash to the floor with his tongue sticking out of his mouth and eyes rolled up into this head. Finnick gave him an extra whack with the bat just for good measure. It was out cold.

All this happened almost instantly. Then she saw her friend stare frozen out at what was in front of him. He was holding Betty in the middle hanging limply in his paw. Her impatience got the best of her and she hopped over him to see what he was staring… As she leaped over the fennec she saw something that shocked her in mid air and she twisted her body to avoid hitting this strange thing. Landing in front she saw the strangest creature she had ever seen.

It seemed to be crouched on the ground but from its legs and body she imagined it would stand fairly tall if it stood on two long legs. It was a mostly furless pale creature with no snout or muzzle just a small flesh extension above its mouth which she assumed was a nose. It had some fur or something on its head. It initially had a painful wince on its face which had turned to a shocked expression as she landed in front of it. She saw it look from her to something she saw it held in it's lap. It was something gray in gray shorts and a gray and white top. She then saw a fluffy white tail coming out of the back of the shorts and saw large gray ears coming from it's head. Something looked quite familiar about those ears. As the strange creature slowly turned fully to face her remaining in its crouched position she saw… she saw… Judy?

She stood frozen for a second and then hopped forward toward her sister. She ignored the strange creature, and landed in front of her and grabbed her in both paws hugging her to her body.

Both the fennec and the strange creature just stood frozen watching this scene.

She then pulled slowly away and looked into her sister's eyes… and instantly realized something was wrong… **very** wrong.

Tala: _dismayed_ "What… what is wrong with her?"

He saw her sisters eyes had a spark of recognition, but that there was nothing else behind them but just that. It was as if her mind was erased… gone! She released Judy who fell forward in a crouched position on all fours again just as she had been in the creatures lap. She pulled her sister to her and anger began to build… fury… hot intense fury….

Tala: _looking up into the strange pale creatures eyes_ _with a ferocious glare ready to commit violence_ " **WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?** "

The strange creature still looked shocked and had a strange sorrowful confused look on its face.

She felt a paw gently rest on her shoulder.

Fin: _calmly_ "Tal… calm yourself… I don't know what the fuck is going on, but it is obvious this creature means no harm to your sister. He was protecting her."

Tala paused and then realized the truth of what Finnick had said.

She then pulled her sister away from the creature… away from its arms with… with strange weird fleshy extensions coming from its paws. What the hell? But what surprised her more was her sister resisted her action and pulled out of her grip and hopped back into the arms of the creature!

Tala: _stunned_ "What the… what… **s** **weet carrot cake** … who… who… who are you?"

Drew: _stammering_ "Dddd… rew… you… you look just like her… almost..."

Tala: _quietly and confused_ "She's… she's my sister…"

Drew: _questioning_ "T… Tala?"

Tala: _confused_ "Yes? Yes that is me… how… how do you know me?"

Drew: _shaking his head_ "She wasn't kidding… you could be her twin… younger twin. Judy mentioned you several times. She told me about a dream she had about you. She said you called to her and told her to stay alive. She said you helped her hang on."

Tala: _shaking her head as if understanding but confused_ "What's wrong with her?"

Drew: "She was hit with a dart and passed out before we got her into the dimensional transfer."

Tala: _astonished_ "The WHAT?"

Drew: "She doesn't seem to have any memory… well no she does have memory of me… and you… but doesn't seem to be able to access her higher functions. It is like something erased her mind... it is like she is DE-evolved or something."

Finnick: "I hate to break up this little family reunion, but we've got to get the fuck out of here. I can't take on every motherfucker in this place by myself you know."

Drew: "I assume we are in the power plant on Zootopia?"

Finnick: _showing Drew the map_ "Yeah, we have a map."

Drew: _looking at the map_ "Judy said to get in touch with… Nick or Bogo."

Finnick: "Who the fuck are you? Ah never mind, no time. Well I haven't been able to get in touch with anyone in this place. Best plan is to get to the entrance. "

He looks Drew up and down.

Finnick: "Hmm I have no idea what the fuck you are. But you don't have any claws or much of any teeth. I guess your job is to carry Judy since she is too large for us."

Drew rummages in Judy's bag and comes up with her tranquilizer pistol.

Drew: "I can use this and hold her in the other arm. Damn, she is the one who is accurate with this but… well point and shoot… how hard could it be?"

Finnick: _sighs_ "Well just try and stay out of the way. " He looks at Drew and says… "Well the ventilation is **definitely** out. We'll have to go out the front."

Finnick and Tala scout in front and Drew followed them stopping and looking around corners and following once the path seemed clear.

They made it to the front without incident and the fennec stuck his head out the entrance and called back.

Finnick: "Don't see any wolves. I guess they cleared out. Best choice is to head south to the outer section of the plant and head around to the front. Those areas should have the least patrols."

Drew and Tala nod.

Finnick: "Try and keep up."

Tala took off down the south path and Drew jogged after her. Poor Finnick was left far behind.

Drew: "Tala!"

Tala was far ahead but her excellent hearing heard Drew's call and she stopped. He caught up to her a few seconds later.

Drew: "Ummm I think we need to wait for your fox friend."

Tala looked back to see the little fennec running as fast as he could. But his tiny legs could only go so fast.

Tala: "Oh sorry got a bit excited. I will scout ahead and come back. You stay with Finnick."

She took off looking ahead and Drew waited for the fennec to catch up. He moved along with the little fox once he caught up.

They got near the bottom of the outer path around the plant and were turning the corner, and ran into Tala as she was coming from the other direction. She collided into Drew and pushed both of them back around the corner.

Tala: "Two guards down there just ahead. I'm going to lead them away. Just keep going once you hear them yell. Will join you shortly."

The little fennec tried to speak most likely to stop her but he was panting. Drew didn't have time to even say a word before she was off like a rocket.

They heard yells ahead and took off.

Tala ran ahead leaping up onto the shoulders of one of the wolves who was facing forward away from her direction. She intentionally leapt high in the air off his shoulder almost hitting the high ceiling and landing far ahead of them and looked back over her shoulder. She got the desired effect. She heard the wolves exclaim, "What the… Heh! Shit. Get that rabbit!" She saw both wolves start to take off after her.

She then did what she was born to do. She ran. She got down on all fours just like her ancestors and ran like a pack of wolves were chasing her… she realized how funny that expression was in this situation. She felt the wind blowing around her. She felt the feel of freedom she had missed for so long. She switched directions briefly so she could glance to the side and saw she had put a great deal of distance on the wolves and had to force herself to slow. Once they had closed part of the distance she saw what she was looking for ahead. She put on a burst of speed and instantly turned to the right and took off to the north. She heard angry shouts behind her. She then put on an extra burst of speed cranking her internal dial to maximum hugging the right wall of the hallway and got double her distance on the pursuing wolves in a matter of seconds. As she passed the next corner she executed a complete right turn jump and unleashed her full speed down the hall for about ten seconds and then instantly executed another right turn jump at the next intersection and then burst again full speed south.

The pursuing wolves were running as fast as they could and then saw the rabbit ahead suddenly disappear. They kept running ahead and then stopped in the hall looking in all directions. It was like the rabbit just vanished into thin air. They couldn't see or hear anything. "Um… Let's not say anything about this…" One wolf said to the other. "Say anything about what?" The other wolf said. "Exactly." The first wolf said.

Tala quickly circled around and came up behind the furless creature called Drew and Finnick. She startled them as she came up beside them out of nowhere. She saw Finnick was really panting and this Drew whatever it was didn't exactly look fresh. She figured she would let them rest at the end of this before heading north to the exit. She hopped along beside them without a single indication she was out of breath.

Tala: "The way ahead should be clear. Meet me at the end of this hall. I will come back if there is anything."

Before they could even open their mouths she was off like a shot. She smiled to herself as she put distance on the group behind her. This was her world.


	31. Escape to the Egress

Once the group had sufficiently rested they began to head north toward the exit to the facility. Tala scouted ahead and ran into three more groups of guards. She led the groups on a merry chase all over the facility and chuckled to herself thinking what all the various groups would say to each other if they all came together.

She met up with her group and knew they were close to the exit. They heard a great deal of noise coming that direction. Loud explosions and sounds she had never heard before. A loud banging sound sort of like firecrackers going off but definitely not fire crackers. That sounds was coming from many sources at once.

They got closer and closer until they saw what was happening. The mammals in dark blue outfits were apparently fighting a group of ZPD at the front entrance. They conferred together and formed a plan as Finnick seemed to be getting angrier. Drew and Tala went around to the opposite side behind them while Finnick headed straight to the first one of these bunny haters in the back. He swung Betty and took out the wolf's legs then brought Betty straight down smashing his head. The strange black metal device the wolf had been firing at the ZPD fell lifelessly from it's paws.

Finnick immediately headed for the next victim. While Finnick was venting his rage on members of the bunny haters, Drew and Tala headed to adversaries on the opposite side. Drew aimed Judy's tranq pistol and fired at point blank range into the back of the creature firing the ACR at the ZPD forces. As soon as the creature turned Tala would sprint in and grab the weapon from it's paws pulling it away. The creature would get a stunned look on its face and then fall forward unconscious. The pair did this numerous times to other confused victims. Occasionally over the din of the battle they would hear yells from the opposite side and heard some whacking sounds which they could only assume was Finnick. Then they would hear the unmistakable deep rich laugh. Apparently Finnick was in his element and having the time of his life.

This was no fun to Drew. He just knew that the ZPD stood no chance unless they took out these animals… these bunny haters as Finnick liked to call them as none of them knew who the hell they were. He and Tala were careful to stay out sight until they spotted a good target and Drew could get close enough so there was no chance of missing them with the tranq pistol. He was down to only one dart left of ten. A trail of unconscious bodies was left strewn behind them.

The bunny haters had the ZPD pinned down near the entrance. He could see the doors of the facility had been broken by a large battering ram of some sort as it lay to the side near one door. Several bodies of animals in police uniforms, he was assuming was the ZPD, lay dead or unconscious near the entry. He saw blood and drag marks back from the entrance. It seems the ZPD had broken down the doors and poured through the opening only to be gun downed by the bunny haters, and the ZPD were forced to retreat or risk getting slaughtered. It appeared any time they pushed forward the bunny haters would use explosives to force them back. Drew's little band of misfits appeared to have taken out about twenty of them. About half their number. Most of them were near the entrance behind cover. He saw several of these enemy had been hit with tranquilizer darts and the large nets of the ZPD. A few others were on the ground crawling as they appear to have been hit with long range tasers.

He needed a distraction. He looked at the guns from their victims and got an idea. Finnick had joined them and he explained what he wanted them to do. Each grabbed a rifle and got behind cover with the bunny haters in front of them and the ZPD past that. The weapons were too large for Finnick and Tala to handle properly, but he knew they were specially designed for low recoil. So he had them point the guns in the air with their stock on the ground and wait for the signal. He put Judy down in front of him behind a wall and took an explosive and tossed it forward just behind the bunny haters.

The explosion went off and the trio fired their guns in the air. He crouched down behind the wall pushing Judy behind him and pointed the gun forward waiting for anything to come around the corner. He didn't relish killing any animal, but if it meant it or him and Judy well… he just hoped his plan worked so he didn't have to make the decision he knew he would make without hesitation.

There was a great deal of shouting ahead of them and many confused voices. Then he heard a crashing sound and many shouts, a couple of shots, and the sound of a furious struggle. He then saw a large form come up the path approaching his corner. He readied the gun, ready to fire as soon as he saw the muzzle of an assault rifle. He was sweating profusely as his finger trembled resting next to the trigger. He steadied himself and saw… he saw the horn first. He saw a giant horn on the nose of a face. In was a rhino! But it wore a blue hat that looked like it had to be law enforcement. It had a very surprised look on its face and raised its hooves high in the air and winced turning to the side expecting the shot it knew was coming.

But no shot was coming. Drew was shocked, but he knew this had to be one of Judy's fellow officers. Now seeing a full rhino standing on two massive legs hovering above you for the first time is enough to put any human into complete shock. But Drew had seen so many crazy things recently he had just starting rolling with whatever as if he was in the world of Alice in Wonderland and crazy things had just become the norm.

Drew: _to the rhino_ "I'm with you guys."

Drew held the gun up and to the side for the rhino to see and put it down beside him. He then turned around and picked up Judy showing her to him.

The rhino's wince turned from shock and then into wonder.

Rhino: _stunned_ "Judy?"

He couldn't see if Judy reacted or not but the rhino got a huge smile on his face and came forward with his arms out.

Now crazy is the norm or not… a rhino coming forward to embrace you is enough to scare anyone under any circumstances and this was no exception. The rhino grasped Judy and Drew in luckily a fairly careful and gentle hug exclaimed, "Your buddy McHorn missed you so much!"

It was at just this point he heard a voice behind the rhino… a deep baritone bellowing voice shout, "McHorn! What the blazes is going on!"

The rhino released his grip from Drew and Judy and backed away to the side in order for this huge voice to observe them. Drew started to stand up holding Judy. He saw Finnick and Tala come over to join him. Then he saw the buffalo.

It was a very large muscular black cafe buffalo with huge forearms and a massive barrel chest standing on two short legs. It had two tan horns sticking to each side of his head curled in a point on each end. And this buffalo had a very furious look on his face.

The angry expression turn to shock when he saw Drew and then to something completely different when he saw what Drew held in his arms. It almost looked like, well love if he didn't know any better. Not romantic love but like the expression you get when you see an adorable kitten or have puppies licking your face. It was extremely odd and disconcerting seeing this look on this intimidating buffalo's face.

Drew: _stammering_ "You're… you have to be Chief Bogo."

Bogo: _looking down staring at Drew with a shocked and curious expression_ "You… I have no idea what you are… but you must have some giant balls to be holding my missing officer like that."

Drew ignored the threat. In other circumstances he would be shaking like a leaf but he had only one thought.

Drew: _worried_ "She… she needs **help**."

Just then the face of a fox came around the side of Bogo. The fox was dressed in the same outfits the bunny haters were wearing which was odd. He was very handsome and quite striking. He had reddish orange fur and brilliant green eyes. He had a slight sly smile on his open mouth. He was standing on two legs like all the animals Drew had seen and had a wide eyed expression as he saw Drew's allies in front of him. He had an assault rifle in his arms, but it fell lifelessly from his paws as he saw the scene in front of him. Seeing him with the other ZPD officers Drew knew this had to be no else but Nick Wilde.

Nick: _curious and shocked_ "Finnick? Ju… tt Tala?"

He then turns and sees Drew behind them. His face turns from curious to confusion and suspicion as he looks up at Drew. As he moves closer he looks down and notices…

Nick: _shocked_ "JJJJ... Judy!"

Drew puts Judy down and she sits on all fours and looks up at Nick. She recognizes him and takes several hops forward until she is in front of him and rubs against his legs.

Nick gets a very strange curious yet worried look on his face as he bends down looking at his friend and immediately senses something is seriously wrong. He crouches down on the ground and takes Judy's face in his two paws and stares deep into her eyes.

Nick: _shocked_ "What… what's wrong with her?"

Then Nick's shocked expression turns from worry and shock to suspicion and anger. He rises up and stares at Drew with a menacing look.

Nick: _seething anger_ "Who are **you**? What have you done to **her**?"

Nick steps forward threatening Drew and begins to get a feral look on his face as he begins to grimace and growl as his teeth show and his paws have claws that have come out.

Judy looks up at the situation starring at Nick and then Drew and back. There is an alarmed expression on her face, the first expression she has had since being back in Zootopia. She immediately turns and heads back toward Drew and leaps into the air landing into his surprised arms. She turns her head back toward the approaching fox and hugs Drew's chest as if she is shielding him from the fox.

Nick stops instantly and stares completely stunned.

All his anger and wrath are gone in an instant replaced by wonder.

Nick: _stunned_ "Wh… what?"

Drew: _cradling Judy to his chest_ "She needs help."

Nick gets a look as if he is recognizing something deep in his brain. He then raises his eyes and gets a thoughtful expression.

Nick: _hopeful_ "I think I just may know how."


	32. Mission Imfoxxible

Once Nick hung up the phone with Bogo, it felt as if all the tension, all the panic, all the pressure was off him. He started to feel like the real Nick. That other Nick was a pretender. That version of Nick he didn't recognize and hoped to never see again. He was now the Nick he enjoyed. He was the Nick that didn't run cowering from trouble, he embraced it and caressed it like a lover.

Bogo thinking that he cared about a commission, about being a sergeant. Like Nick cared about such meaningless things as titles and ranks. Only Judy cared about such things. And he cared about only one thing, Judy. But in order to get the answers to the questions of what happened to his partner and best friend, he would need to get this place under heel and do whatever he could to help his fellow ZPD officers and their allies defeat this Covenant. He had a lot of questions that needed answers especially some about a certain long eared purple eyed bunny.

These pretenders believing they were acting for the good of predators with their actions. Nick knew you couldn't live among prey and gain their respect and cooperation using threats and violence. You couldn't ignore them either. You needed to embrace them, accept them, become friends with them and love them. They were not all bad, they just needed to realize that predators were mammals the same as them. They had the same feelings, the same insecurities and the same needs. As a predator, you had to break the stereotypes of bigoted prey, and instead of acting like they expected you to, act the opposite. Prove them wrong. If you couldn't change their minds then so be it, but you could change all the minds of other prey who were willing to see you with an open mind and accept you as a fellow mammal or even as a friend.

Nick steadied himself and felt the determination coming back. He got his game face on. Nick's game face was his greatest weapon. He had a sly smiling grin that he had practiced to perfection showing how relaxed he was, and putting all the marks at ease while he swindled, hustled, bamboozled or hoodwinked them depending on his mood.

He had a sense that he was going to need every skill he had learned in the next twenty-four hours or so and his mind was racing with all the possible cons he would have to pull off in a short amount of time. Nick's record for the most complex cons pulled in twenty-four hours was four. He knew of nobody with more truly complex cons in that time period. But he had a feeling he was going to need to break the record in order to personally endure and help as many innocent Zootopians and ZPD survive the next two days.

As Nick slipped out of the old communications room with his numerous senses at maximum sensitivity, his instinct told him that something was wrong… something was hunting him. He had learned to trust this instinct as it had kept him alive time after time. When you have as many amazing senses as a fox and you had the life experience of Nick, you can just feel the danger hanging in the air clinging to your fur. Nick heard footsteps heading his way in a very purposeful manner and instantly moved down the opposite hall and headed toward his target. As he slid silently into a small alcove occupied by a large potted plant, he backed into a corner with a dark shadow. He hid his tail behind him and pulled his shirt over his head while putting his arms behind him so that anyone looking into the corner would not see a hair of reddish orange fur but only a dark outline.

Nick then focused all his attention and his acute hearing on the footsteps standing outside the room he had just vacated. He then listened carefully to the voices as they unlocked the door and entered.

Guard1: "You see him?"

Guard2: "Hmm, no don't see him anywhere… but I smell him. I smell the scent of fox. I smell the scent of fear. He was just here."

Guard3: "Austin Kenton, that's the name right? A fucking sneaky fox."

Guard1: "I know Austin, he's no fucking fox."

Guard2: "Well who is he then? We need to do a wider search? This could be trouble."

Guard3: "No, Tigerstone said he watched him get in here and we better keep this quiet or we were all going to suffer the wrath of the founders if any word of this gets out."

Guard1: "So we just need to find him and make sure no trace is left."

Guard2: "Well how many reddish orange foxes could there be wandering around here?"

Guard3: "Well split up and cover the entire quadrant. Search every corner and crevice. We can't return until he is found and disposed of. Report anything on security comms as well as when you clear a sector. He probably is just a short way down one of the halls. Let's go."

Nick heard the three guards exit the room and head in three different directions. He listened carefully to recognize each of their footsteps. Paw pads and claws on a floor each made a distinct sound, and if you had highly attuned hearing they were like voices or fingerprints. He relaxed and put his mind in complete calm as Nangi taught him. Fear did not exist for him. Fear was his bitch. He fucked fear for fun.

The guard… the one with the acute smell passed right by. He had made sure to know those paws. Heavy, powerful… this was a bear… a black bear from the hulking mound of dark fur that passed by. The mammal with greatest sense of smell of all mammals. With the ability to smell the sex, the species, the emotion or last meal of anything it wished. An animal capable of smelling food from vast distances away.

Nick owned fear. He became one with the plant. He became the shadow of the plant. He became the absence of light.

After about thirty seconds, Nick came out of his trance. He heard the footsteps of the bear continuing down the hall. He wondering initially how the bear had missed his scent even if he had removed all scent of fear. Then he noticed the plant in front of him. It had a wonderful smell of orange blossoms coming from it enveloping his nostrils. This orange jessamine may have saved his life. Beautiful plant, he thought, if I get out of this I am coming back for you, my beauty.

He lovingly caresses its lush green leaves and quickly slipped out following the light paw sounds of the first guard who was heading in the direction he wished to go. He had to get these guards off his trail in order to execute the rest of his plans. Sure he could have gone to ground at this point and just waited for Bogo, but he had a lot of work to do, **A LOT**.

He quickly hurried down the hall listening for the guards footsteps. He finally heard them ahead and moving to the right. He headed to the left towards the garage where he knew his first mark could be found.

It was time for the **Switch and Bait** as he named this scam. Nick had names for every con. He had a giant catalog in his brain of every con and every alteration he could use. This is a modification of the old Switch and Roll, and he thought it should work just right if executed properly and with a bit of luck.

Ah, just what he was looking for. He saw a beautiful reddish orange tail ahead sticking out of a uniform. It was a bit lighter than his beautiful color, but it should work fine. He walked into the garage without a care in the world and picked up a notebook with an invoice of shipments being loaded for transport to the various locations in the operation. Well, he thought this will work perfect for all the other things in his Rolodex as he shifted the mental cards and found several cons to fit. He looked down on the schedule and glanced at his phone to see what was shipping first. He then palmed the name tag off his uniform and walked over to the owner of this nice bushy tail.

Nick then bumped into his mark who was bent over busily checking the contents of some rectangular boxes that seemed to contain something called ammunition. It seemed the mark was inventorying everything for the next shipment. Well Nick had a different job in mind for this fellow. Nick bumped into him while staring at his clipboard so he hit him from the side and had the clipboard nearly under mister bushy tail's neck as he shifted around.

Nick: _apologetically_ "Oh… darn… sorry my man."

In one movement under the clipboard he swapped the name tags and glancing out of his eye to the new palmed tag and saw the information he needed.

Nick: "Billy… Billy Softpaws… that's you right?"

Billy: _startled_ "Um… yeah… yeah it is. Do you know me?"

Nick: _with his best grin shaking his paw_ "Jeff, Jeff Redtail… no I don't although you are one handsome fellow. Beautiful coloring my friend."

Billy: _blushing (although you aren't go see it on his face obviously)_ "Oh… thanks… oh you too… "

Nick: "The reason was the guys from Tigerstone's group said they needed to see you. They said to meet them around the communications room. Said they needed to talk to you about something important concerning the operation."

Billy: _worried_ "Oh man, I don't know why they would want to see me. I try to avoid anything to do with those guys."

Nick: "Don't know Billy, but they said if they had to come searching for you, that you would regret it… **really regret it** they emphasized."

Billy: _really worried_ "Oh shit! Umm well I better go then."

Nick: "Don't sweat it man, I am sure they mean no harm. Just hang out in the communications area until you see one his guys. Am sure they will be around there soon."

Billy: _really worried_ "Umm... yeah sure. Thanks."

Billy put his notepad down and quickly headed in the direction in which Nick had just come.

 _Poor bastard_ Nick thought.

Nick: _under his breath_ "Well he should have chosen better company."

Nick pocketed the name tag for his future use. He was going to need a few things for his next job. _One down, more to go_ he thought.

Nick picked up a reasonably sized cart and headed for some storage rooms he had seen on his map. Predators moved around busily in all different directions. Some were in normal uniforms like Nick doing different labor jobs, some in lab coats and some guards carrying rifles. He figured if he just acted like he belonged no one would bother questioning him. With so many predators he doubted anyone knew what most of the others were even supposed to be doing.

Nick arrived at his first destination, a maintenance storage room. He enter the room and found a good sized box and started grabbing every bar of unscented soap he could find. He unwrapped all the bars and put all soap into the box filling it and the closing the top. He tossed all the wrappers into a trash bag and attached it to his belt. Exiting the room, he placed the box on the tray under the cart.

He then headed toward his next destination. A bit of a trickier situation on this next grab. He dropped the bag of wrappers in a full trash can making sure it was pushed under some particular nasty food. No one should accidentally come across that he thought.

Nick approached the medical supply closet, his next target.

He took the clipboard he had kept from the garage and walked into the closet pretending to look for items. It was a good thing as a wolverine was in the same closet searching for something. Nick looked at the wolverine and just gave him a nod acknowledging him as if to say "heh, guy sup… go about your business." Nick then completely ignored him and looked over the shelves glancing at his clipboard as he went. It took awhile, but he found what he was looking for… cascara sagrada. He grabbed all the bottles he could find and shoved them into the box. He then pretended to check them off his list writing a check mark on the pad.

He then looked on the wall at the inventory list for the room and found what he needed. Thank goodness for an organized invasion force. He looked in the lower left and pulled out several large boxes of what he wanted, Elk Snax. He wondered why elks would need massive bowel cleaning as they seemed to eat a lot of roughage, but figured it was just a marketing name. He guessed it sounded a lot better than Exploding Slacks.

Apparently some predators in this crew had a lot of stoppage issues; probably because they ate no rich fibrous fruits and vegetables he imagined. He found a large, almost empty box and filled it with these chocolate flavored bundles of bowel breakage grabbing every one.

He had been keeping an eye on the wolverine out of the corner of his vision. The wolverine seemed to ignore him and left the room after apparently finding what it needed.

Nick stuffed these next two items under the cart and headed for his final destination. The commissary was a good distance from his current location in the north section of the facility and it took awhile to get to. He saw a cafeteria where all type of workers were enjoying some meals in between their work schedule. Nick headed toward the kitchen wheeling the cart. He was keeping an eye out for an important costume change. Ah, he noticed a changing room with lockers as he passed a counter. Nick slipped in and looked for what he wanted. He found a large nice clean white apron. That was easy enough, now for the next piece. While not absolutely necessary it would help sell the illusion and this was going to take a special kind of performance. Yes… in the back of the room he found what he was looking for, a nice chefs hat. It was squashed and had a few stains on it, but it couldn't be helped. He went to the counter outside with a sink and tried to wash the stains out as much as he could with a rag and a bit of dish detergent. He managed to get the stains to a dull white so they wouldn't be visible unless you looked very closely. He then looked around and found some long pins. He also found some thick white cardboard. He cut the cardboard and measured into a tube and pinned it to the right size attaching it inside the hat. He tested it on his head. Nick made a few more adjustments and boom he had a fairly convincing fresh looking chefs hat.

Nick put on the apron and hat, and got himself into the mental state for his next work of art. He then pushed the cart toward the back where the kitchen was located. As he entered he saw three very tired looking workers in aprons preparing a long list of food. Good, Nick thought, this would make it a bit easier.

He entered the room with an arrogant pretentious air and his back straight, and walked like he owned the world. He stopped in the middle of the room. He looked around and clapped his paws together loudly to get their attention.

Nick: _egotiscally_ "Chop chop people… we have mouths to feed and not much time to do it in."

A young tired looking raccoon looked up.

Raccoon: "Who… who are you?"

Nick: _confidently_ "Jordan Ramsee of course."

Nick looks around with a shocked almost angry look, "You haven't heard of me?"

A young lynx looks at him and then nods his head.

Lynx: "Ah yes sir. Yes I have. I can't believe you are here. I thought you worked in the fine restaurants in the city."

Nick: _with a smile_ "Ah... yes my good mammal of course I do… but I am a believer in our cause. And I am here to make sure our shipment to our good brethren is the best possible before the big day."

Nick: _energetically_ "May our way be open. May our freedom be true."

The third member of the trio looks up, an older jackal. All three repeat in unison in a monotone tired voice "May our way be open. May our freedom be true."

Nick: "Well that is better. Not exactly the energy level I was looking for, but better. Now what are we missing for the distribution shipment?"

Jackal: "Um we need a couple things still. We are frying fish nuggets right now. We finished the deserts, a crème filled pastry. We have packages of cricket chips. But we need to make the cicada burgers. They had wanted to ship grasshopper shakes but there was no way to keep them frozen. Also all the food would need to be served cold in the field unless some had ovens so we needed to make food that could be eaten cold."

Nick: "Ah too bad the shakes would have been great for morale. Well it can't be helped. Could we make some tea for them instead?"

Raccoon: _eagerly_ "Sure sir… I can make it and package it."

Nick: "Well tell me before you are ready to brew. I have some special leaves that will help keep our boys invigorated. How many do we need to make?"

Raccoon: "Enough for 600 sir."

Nick: _whistles_ "Well get to it."

Nick: _looking at the lynx_ "Bring out the ingredients for the cicada burgers. I will handle preparation in a just a bit."

Nick: _looking at the jackal_ : "Finish the fish nuggets, I will be back with something special for our desserts. "

The jackal nods at him.

Nick: _to the lynx_ "Oh prepare me your biggest pot of five liters of oil and heat it to until near boiling."

Lynx: "Yes sir"

Nick wheeled the cart into the room adjacent to the main preparation room. So far so good. Initially he thought he would have to storm around and curse and throw insults until everyone left, but there was no way he could quickly prepare meals for 600 packages by himself. As long as they all behaved, he would just keep playing Mr. Nice Guy. But if any of them got out of line. Well Finnick had taught him how to curse if he needed it for a job. Nick never really cursed out loud unless his role called for it. He just felt he was too cool to curse. He smiled to himself at that thought.

Nick quickly put down wax paper and started to heat a medium sized pot on medium heat and put in a whole lot of sticks of butter and cocoa and sugar. He then began unwrapping all the Elk Slax and tossing them into the pot. Once they were all full and melted he began pouring the mixture onto the wax sheets into equal sized round flat circles. Once he had 600 he stopped and let them sit while he went into the kitchen.

While here he also grabbed a lot of ingredients and prepared something he would need for a much later con or a possible fast escape. This was one of the fun little things Honey Badger had taught him which he nicknamed **pepper puffs**. Such a sweet innocent name for something anything but. He piled a couple pounds of the hottest peppers in Zootopia and put them into a blender. Nick put on a pair of plastic goggles and covered his nose with a cloth. Then on an electric burner he heated water and placed a jug full of the blended peppers and denatured ethyl alcohol into the water. This was heated until the mixture was simmering. Nick took precautions to make sure there was no chance of igniting the fumes which was why he was using an electric burner. He let the alcohol cool and filtered it off. He repeated the process three more times. He then poured the mixture through a strainer to remove the pepper solids and poured the liquid into large mouthed glass jars. He then heated the two large mouthed glass jars in the water until the alcohol had evaporated to about 0.1 liters in each and removed the jars. He filtered off the alcohol until what was left was a thick reddish oil. Once cool he added a bit of mineral oil to the residue and carefully mixed it and poured the mixture into several small thin walled vials they had been using for storing spices and small items. He made sure all were well sealed as he didn't want any accidents. He put these vials in a plastic bag full of toilet tissue making sure there was plenty of padding in between each vial. He also grabbed some medium cloths sized about a half meter by half meter and some plastic bottles of water. All of these he stored in his pockets as well as the goggles. He had used this mixture for making some quick escapes in several failed scams, and he had a feeling he was definitely going to need it now.

Nick then grabbed a second box from below the cart and went to find the raccoon. The raccoon was heating a large pot and had poured in a large amount of tea leaves. He was waiting for it to start boiling. Nick sent the raccoon to finish packing the fish nuggets and dumped in all the cascara sagrada into the pot as well as several bags of sugar and put the empty containers back in the box and under the his cart. Now for the hardest part.

He took the large box of soap to where they had a boiling pot of oil ready. They had already gotten him all the spices and a large mass of insect paste on the counter. His only problem was this was going to smell. Dish detergent would have been easy to use for this, but it had no real soap in it. For this job he needed real soap and it might have a strong smell. Then he got an idea. He decided to spice up these particular cicadas… he tossed a bunch of normal spices and some fragrant hot spices into the oil. For some reason he had an uncontrollable urge and yelled "BAM!" as he did this. Fortunately as he did this he knew to cover his nose and eyes but some of the others nearby were not so lucky. They yelled and ran to a sink to rinse their eyes. While they were doing this, Nick dumped the entire contents of soap into the oil. He let the mixture boil while the raccoon and lynx were washing their eyes out. The jackal was busy in the other room packaging the fish nuggets. He saw the two were starting to dry their faces and he looked at the boiling mixture and saw it had sufficiently melted so he started dumping all the insect paste inside. He stirred it for several minutes until he was sure everything was properly blended.

Nick then had the raccoon and lynx wheel the massive pot into the freezer to cool down.

While they were doing this he checked on his tea which was boiling away and then checked on his chocolate surprise. The chocolate mixture had partially melted and he added cherry liquor on top of each. They should be fully hardened soon.

He then supervised the raccoon and lynx pouring the tea through a strainer and had them move the giant pot to the freezer for cooling.

He then instructed them to put his chocolate surprises on each of the pastries. Then he had them add whipped cream and a cherry on top for good measure. The jackal had returned and he had the jackal package all the pastries in little boxes. He then had them bring out the burger meat and the raccoon and jackal fried the 600 burgers.

Nick sat back against the counter and smiled. Operation con number two **Foul Feast** was looking pretty solid. He had this group whipped pretty well into shape. This Jordan Ramsee had quite the reputation. Sometimes your reputation alone could do most of the work for you. It is a good thing none of these guys knew Ramsee was actually a ram with large horns and a mean impatient temper. Maybe they thought it was just too obvious. He didn't nail them as those who enjoyed much fine dining anyway. Once he had them finish the burgers and package the tea, he had all three finish boxing all the 600 meals and wheel them to the distribution trucks.

As Nick wheeled the cart to the garbage area he was in fairly high spirits. He thought to himself they should be thanking him for getting this crew organized for a change. They were several hours early for the distribution. He hoped the Covenant members in the field appreciated all his hard work. They deserved a good last meal before starting their Operation Freedom. Nick smiled really big. Oh the explosions in their mouths. How wondrous their stomachs will feel in a few hours after this delicious treat. They should be in great shape for the invasion.

Laughing he tossed the boxes and trash from his supplies into the compost area. He then dumped a nice pile of additional compost on top to erase all trace. He wasn't leaving anything to chance as this was life or death. But that didn't mean he couldn't have fun while he saved the world. Two cons down now how many more to go.

He wheeled the cart past the closet and tossed the apron into the dirty clothes pile. Removed the cardboard and pins from the hat and tossed that in as well. He placed the pins and cardboard in a white sack he found and tossed it onto the cart for disposal far from here. As he wheeled the cart past the food supply closet he got an idea for number three. He got three large jars of honey and put them down. He poured the honey into 3 larger metal cans. Nick then took all the empty glass containers he could find from the recycling bins and put them into a large double lined plastic bag. He then put that into another bag and then placed that into a third. He took the bag out to the trash and started smashing it against the wall. He figured if anyone came out to bother him he would just pull the Jordan temper tantrum acting scam. Once he was sure the glass was in all tiny pieces he brought it back where he had the three cans hidden. He poured all the glass out on a white cloth and carefully picked any large pieces out and then equally distributed each into the 3 cans and mixed it.

Conveniently he was still in the food preparation area and so he figured he could take care of con number four preparations while he was here. He filled a large glass container with water and added bottles of yellow and blue dye until he got the water just the right color he needed. He then added all the clear gelatin he could find until the liquid was quite thick. Hopefully it was thick enough for what he needed. Nick repeated this until he had about two hundred liters.

Nick put the large bottles of liquid into large boxes of packing styrofoam. He stacked many boxes of these and the honey glass cans to his cart. He stopped by bathroom supply and got about twenty rolls of toilet tissue and put all that into another box. He had a nice little collection of fun toys on his cart now. He only needed one more thing to start his next two cons. He hoped he could find that item back at garage, and hoped Billy was busy with his new _friends_.

Nick arrived at the distribution center and fortunately Billy was not around so he put Billy's name tag on and became Billy. He searched around and asked several workers for his next object, but no one knew where it could be located until he thought to ask a wolf guard.

Nick strode up to the wolf with his biggest smile extending his outstretched paw and shook the startled wolf's paw.

Nick: _smiling wide_ "Billy, Billy Softpaws."

The wolf shook his paw. Apparently he was not used to anyone talking to him.

Phil: _surprised_ "Phil Whitetooth. Umm how may I help you?"

Nick: "I was wondering where you get the supplies to clean those rifles. I had wanted to check the rifles before they shipped out and make sure everything was clean as a whistle and ready to go."

Phil: "Oh, let me show you. We keep the supplies in the guards barracks."

They wandered towards the barracks which Nick saw was only a short walk glancing at his map.

Nick: "You must get bored just standing there all day. Do they rotate you to anything more exciting?"

Phil: "I wish. It is so mind numbing. I have no idea what I am supposed to be guarding."

Nick: "Ah man, well I feel for you. Like hopefully you will get to see some action in just a short time. Are you going out to the field later tonight?"

Phil: _sighs_ "No, I get to stay and guard. Well guard you guys I guess. Those guys are gonna have all the fun."

Nick: _sympathetic_ "I feel ya dude. I have to stay here as well. Hopefully I get to drive a truck sometime. Counting crap really sucks."

They arrive at the barracks.

Nick: "Hey Phil, you think you could grab me a couple of those cleaning kits?"

Phil: "Oh, yeah sure. Didn't you want to come inside?"

Nick: "Oh I didn't think I was allowed. Figured it was your area only."

Phil: _apologetic_ "Oh, yeah you're right. Be right back."

Nick didn't want to take any chances of questions in the guard barracks or the chance someone knew Billy. The less people he talked to the better. Gosh this Billy was a really nice understanding guy. It is sure nice people liked to help him out. Nick grinned.

Phil came out with two of the cleaning kits. Just what he needed. There were some dirty filthy barrels that needed cleaning and he had made his extra special cleaning mixture.

Phil and Billy (aka Nick) chatted away commiserating with how boring this stuff was and how much fun the guys in the field were going to have. Phil wished he could fire these guns more than the occasional test firing at the range. But ammunition was all being saved for the operation. Hopefully Phil could get his chance once he got moved to guarding some of the suburbs… maybe in Phase II. Nick hoped he got a chance to guard his butt in prison instead… to himself of course. Ah Nick knew he was being crude, but he was getting tired. It had been a long day and there was a lot more to do.

Nick dropped Phil off at his station and he quickly headed to the garage for the commencement of **Sticky Icky** and **Aqua Fur**. In **Sticky Icky** Nick would take the cleaning rod and stick it in the honey and then wrap it with a bit of toilet tissue and then dunk it again into his honey and glass mixture. He would then stick the rod with the honey, glass and paper down the barrel as far as it would reach. He made sure no mixture remained on the end of the rifle and wiped off any excess. Nick would do this for every rifle he inspected and loaded them for the next shipments.

In **Aqua Fur** Nick would collect all the boxes of serum and all the empty vials and take them to the loading machine. He would pour his special thickened mixture into the machine instead of the serum filling all the vials, and then taking the machine tranquilizer rolls and loading them for transport. Any real serum he would pour down the disposal drain in the floor they used when washing down the place.

Thus Nick spent the next eight long hours loading up guns and serum for transport to all the surrounding operation centers. Nick hoped the thick fake serum would not inject anything into the victims, but even if it did he figured it should be harmless. He was hoping that it might just jam the guns. Any of the tranquilizer machine guns he discovered he would simply break. Fortunately their triggers were not designed to survive a screwdriver stuck into the firing mechanism and jammed forward.

The last of the trucks loaded, it was time for Nick to rest, as his next plans would not take place until the arrival of a certain angry buffalo and the boys in blue. But first he needed to grab a couple things to prepare for **Runaround Sue** as he would not have time to search for what he needed when the shit hit the fan. Nick wandered back into the belly of the beast, Tigerstone's lair, heading right for his den. Remember fear was Nick's bitch and it was time to slap it around a bit.

Nick carefully moved forward and then paused listening for any footsteps. He repeated this quickly and silently moving toward his target. Fortunately foxes were silent assassins and the skills of his ancestors served him quite well on this day. Foxes weren't known for being sneaky for nothing. Some stereotypes are based in reality.

Nick arrived at the entrance to Tigerstone's office and stood just outside the door listening and sniffing carefully. Once he was sure no one was inside he slipped through the front low on all fours and maneuvered around the desk so he could not be seen from outside if someone wandered by. This Tigerstone was ballsy for leaving his office wide open, but Nick figured with his reputation no one would be stupid enough to try and come into his office without permission, except for Nick of course. Hopefully Tigerstone's goons had found their missing fox and solved their little problem. The only flaw in the con is if they took the bait to Tigerstone himself for questioning. But it sounded like Tigerstone would not want to risk being seen with this fox again and would hopefully just have him dealt with by his henchmen.

Nick searched the office for the two things he needed but only found one. There was no walkie communication device. He supposed he would have to find that later. He did find the computer and fortunately Tigerstone had as much security on his computer as his office. He found what he was looking for and printed off reports with all personnel in the facility, their private comms channels if available and their departments and positions. Nick was no expert with a computer but Judy insisted he know enough to fill out reports, do searches, transfer files and print reports. All that insistence really paid dividends here. He didn't like admitting she was right, but he would admit it to her every once in awhile to improve her mood. When you didn't do it very often, the times you actually do it mean far more. If she was feeling quite low he would save those for some energy boosts to lift her spirits. He filed this one away for such a future use.

Nick copied all the personnel and data files he could find on the computer to a portable storage device and slipped it in his pocket for safe keeping. Hopefully they would be successful as this information would be needed to find any Covenant that were not captured or killed.

Nick checked his phone and realized he couldn't do much until Bogo arrived. His mind had run through about twenty plans, but they weren't worth the risk at this point and he was very tired. He needed rest. Nick checked the map and headed toward the main communications and monitoring room. He was careful to listen and sniff for any potential surprises, but he hoped **Bait and Switch** had worked and the heat was off. It was always risky when you didn't know if a con had worked, but all indications so far was that it had done the job. Nick inspected all the rooms near the main communications room examining the air duct systems. He figured he needed to be near the main room when Bogo arrived in order to know when this actually occurred.

Nick entered a room next door and moved a desk below the vent. He locked the door behind him and wedged a chair under the door. He then used his handy toolkit to remove the vent cover. He then climbed up into the vent and slid forward so his head was next to the vent grate to the Communications Room. Apparently the fun from earlier was done and the room appeared to have only a couple predators manning the communications as he imagined the rest of the Covenant were preparing for execution of their invasion plans. Nick then decided this was the best chance to get a bit of rest. The confines of the vent were very tight but fortunately foxes were excellent at sliding into tight spots, and his self imposed diet of the past month had made him extra slim. Nick checked the phone and hoped Bogo and the crew got here soon as they were running out of time. He had done all one fox could possibly do and now it was up to his new compatriots. Before he knew it Nick had closed his eyes and succumbed to his exhaustion and fell fast asleep.


	33. Fantastic Mr. Wilde

Nick was having a wonderful dream about accidentally wandering into the wrong locker room after his favorite team's pawball game. There were all these pom poms scattered around the room and he saw a bunch of short little skirts hugging these beautiful rears and lovely tails waving around. He had wandered into the Cheerpaws locker room! These were his favorites as they had four of the most sexy vixens in Zootopia on their squad as well as a gorgeous snow leopard, a sleek luxurious doe with huge eyes who wore sparkles on her hooves, and a clouded leopard with sexy moves that just would not quit.

Nick: _shocked and embarrassed_ "Oh sorry ladies… I must have made a wrong turn somewhere."

All seven turned around and looked at him in surprise as he turned to exit the room. As he started to open the door all of a sudden he was surround by seven visions of loveliness all rubbing next to him informing him, "Not so fast Mr. Handsome."

Denna the vixen: _super sexily_ "You realize you have to pay the penalty for coming in here."

Nick: _gulps_ "Um, what would that be?"

Dalia the vixen: _even sexier_ "Well we are all really tired from the game and just don't have the energy to get ourselves clean."

Rubbing up next to him Sasha the vixen got a little pout on her muzzle, "My tail gets so droopy and lifeless after these games, can you help?" The vixen bends over and pushes her stunning bushy red tail and hindquarters up in front of Nick making him instantly upright in his pants.

Nick: _hesitantly_ "Ladies, can we talk about this?"

Aurora the clouded leopard: _insanely sexily_ "I feel so dirty, please Mr. Fox!" She gets on all fours and rubs against Nick's impossibly tight crotch.

Nick valiantly tries to fend them off but the seven drag him towards the showers stripping their little outfits off as they go. But they never make it to the showers.

Imogen the vixen: _excitedly_ "Oh, he needs cleaning as well… help me get those pesky clothes off him girls." After a few seconds and a vain struggle by the fox Imogen is heard to exclaim in a shocked tone, "OH MY! Well it is going to take all seven of us to clean that tower of his properly."

They had all just begun giving him a thorough tongue cleaning when sirens began to wail in the stadium. Nick thought the sirens must be from his head about to explode as the feel of those seven tongues on his tower were driving him to heights of ecstasy beyond any imagining. The sirens continued and seemed to get louder and louder as their intensity seemed to be rising with the intensity of his mounting climax.

Paws and hooves were all over him… over his tail… gently cupping the two orbs under his tail

and then suddenly there were tongues gently licking the orbs as well.

The sirens in his head were about to explode… he vainly tried to stop the explosion building in his scepter which felt like it was reaching as if to touch the ceiling.

Nick: _warning_ "Um ladies… watch out!"

All of a sudden the sirens called out and the room shuddered, and Nick could not hold the forces back any longer as he blasted forth like volcano with white hot magma spewing forth in a shower over the entire room leaving nothing unscathed.

Completely drained, he heard seven of the most sensual voices in the world scream in ecstasy and delight, "So much cleaning to do!" They proceeded to lick the magma off each other as well as Nick doing the job so thoroughly you would have thought their lives depended on it.

Lives depended on it… why was that important to Nick? Oh God, he never wanted to leave this place. But the sirens were telling him he must. Fuck you sirens! I deserve this. But the sirens were not listening. He felt the licking of tongues become lighter, the beautiful gorgeous waving tails and bare rears were dissipating. The visions of perfection were gone. The only thing left was the blare of the incessant sirens, and shouting. Voices shouting... "… emergency protocol 45. All defense personnel to the front position! This is not a drill! Repeat. This is not a drill!"

The subsequent building elevation in Nick's pants instantly disappeared and the real world slapped Nick as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped on him. Bogo must be here. How long had he been asleep? Oh fucking hell!

Nick quickly scooted back out the vent falling backwards landing on the desk and rolling off onto all fours. Oh crap, he checked his pocket and the bag. No breakage, wow that was close. He quickly opened the bag grabbing three vials and putting them into his front pocket. He put the goggles on and pulled out one of the white cloths and a water bottle soaking the cloth. He wrapped the folded cloth over his muzzle so it was tightly in place with his mouth open but nose completely blocked.

Time for action. He removed the chair and opened the door stepping into a scene of madness to the senses: sirens blaring, footsteps running everywhere and shouting from all directions. Nick ignored all this as he had one mission. Nick strode over to the doorway of the main communications room surveying the scene before him in an instant.

A frantic lynx was sitting in the primary communications chair holding a large microphone with a stand connected to the main system with a thick wire. He was the one yelling the emergency message. Behind him a bobcat was wearing large headphones and was apparently listening intently to reports from all over the facility. To their left in the corner of the room a large black bear was holding an assault rifle and was staring around the room with an angry growl emanating from his muzzle. There was no question who the first target would be, as Nick instantly threw one vial directly into the muzzle of the bear exploding the mixture into it's face dissipating it into the air. Nick didn't waste time for the result of this action as he rocketed the other vial into the communications equipment directly in front of the lynx and next to the bobcat. Then he tossed the final vial straight at the ceiling smashing above all three watching the liquid inside rain liquid fire for the senses around the entire room. He instantly backed out of the doorway in two quick steps slipping around the side of the wall.

It did not take long to hear the screams of unspeakable agony coming from the room. Three figures stumbled out of the room and partially down the hall bending over retching and rubbing their eyes, only making it worse Nick thought to himself satisfied. He took three quick steps and snagged the walkie communications from the shaking bear in one motion as he stepped into the room and slammed the door shut. He locked the door and quickly surveyed the room. He grabbed a wooden chair and slammed it to the floor shattering the legs. He did the same with another chair. He took three of the legs that shattered at an angle and wedged all three under the door with the flat part on the floor. He took the rifle the bear had dropped and using the butt of the gun quickly hammered all three wedges as hard as he could jamming them under the door. He then shoved a desk under the vent and hopped up undoing the vent screws with his toolkit and tossing the grate into a corner.

Nick then grabbed another desk with a deep upper base and flipped it over. He took three large water bottles used for a water cooler in the corner and ripped off their tops and dumped the contents into the flipped desk so it made a nice deep pool and pushed it in front of the communications equipment. Nick hopped up onto the chair and grabbed the microphone.

Nick did his best to imitate the voice of the lynx. Nick had a knack for imitating voices which would come in handy right now. It was time to break the record. It was time for con five **Trip Downunder**.

Nick: _shouting_ "Attention! Cancel Protocol 45. Switching to Protocol 46A. Attention! Switch to Protocol 46A"

Nick: _shouting_ "All defense personnel to the subway entry! All defense personnel to the subway entry! Imminent breach at the subway! All to the railway! This is Not a Drill! Repeat. This is Not a Drill!"

Nick repeated both these command lines several times as he heard lots of voices shouting outside the door to the Communications room. Then he heard lots of banging on the door and then shots fired at the door lock.

Nick heard the hinges start to give way as most likely the bear and some other heavy predators were slamming into it. Looks like his time was up.

He pushed the desk with the communications system towards the door blocking it and tossed the entire equipment still plugged into the wall into his little pool while leaping up onto the desk under the vent. He heard a popping sound and saw smoke out of the corner of his eye. He didn't wait to see the result as he dove into the ventilation and slithered as fast as he could down the shaft. There was a very loud bang and the lights behind him and in front of him flickered out and then back on. He dove through the open grate into the original room he had earlier come from landing on the other table and rolling to the floor in one motion.

It was time for number six **Runaround Sue**. Nick removed his goggles and put them into his pocket and tossed the cloth over his nose into the corner. He then pulled out the printouts of all the personnel and noted the security comm channels each were on. He then started switching to the various channels on the security walkie he had snagged from the bear as he made his way through the facility towards the front entrance.

In a voice imitating Tigerstone's Nick yelled…

Channel 21: "Security personnel to the cafeteria. That means you Stevenson, Clawbottom, Moonbear, Firepaw. Security to the cafeteria, Now!"

Channel 22: "Security personnel to the prisoner storage. Security personnel to the prisoner storage. That means you Spotsbottom, Weaselton, Martendale, Coonson. To the prisoner storage, Now!"

He continued this for ten more channels until he hit the main Security Channel…

"All remaining personnel gather at the garage and wait further instructions! All remaining personnel gather at the garage and wait further instructions! Get your asses there immediately!"

Then Nick heard a familiar voice on the channel…

Tigerstone: _outraged_ "Who the fuck is this?"

Nick: _incredulous_ "Tigerstone, you imbecile! Who do you think it is?"

Tigerstone: _confused_ "Wha… tha… "

Nick: _forcefully_ "Get your ass to the garage or I am gonna have the founders use your innards as a jump rope!"

Tigerstone: "This is Tigerstone!"

Nick: "I told you Tigerstone wants you to the garage now!"

Tigerstone: "Who? Oh I am gonna stick my claws through your asshole you..."

Nick: "You've been outfoxed furbrains… "

Tigerstone: "Wha… oh… no way…"

Nick: _smiling_ "Thanks for the keys… I will return the favor at Zootopia Pen in a few hours..."

Nick laughed and switched off the walkie as he was approaching the front entrance and heard a large battle going on.

At least fifty of these Covenant were arrayed in front of the main entrance. He could see the ZPD were pinned down at the front taking fire from Covenant. Several of the ZPD were down and several Covenant as well. How was he going to get through to Bogo?

Nick hatched a plan and decided he would have to try and risk it as he needed to meet up and get the information to his buffalo boss. He took the remaining vials out of his pocket. He took a white cloth and soaked it in water and put it over his muzzle and nose. He moved along the right side of the wall tossed one vial near those firing in the rear, one in the middle and one near the front. He didn't wait for the vials to hit as he slid quickly down the right approaching the front. As he neared the front line he heard several yells and screams in the direction of the Covenant forces and he began running down low on all fours a few centimeters off the ground hugging the front wall, and sprinted to the main doors tumbling through.

He was instantly tackled by a lion and a polar bear. They had him pinned to the ground and Nick got a great big smile on his face as he looked up.

Nick: _relieved_ "Grizzoli, Delgato, you guys have **no idea** how great it is to see you."

Bogo: "Fox! I mean sergeant, report!"

Nick gave Bogo a quick run down of all the forces facing him at the front and told him they needed to breach soon as he had two thirds of the remaining defense personnel spread over different sections of the facility.

Bogo, the Zootopia Elite forces officers and several ranking ZPD officers were formulating a plan when they heard a loud explosion followed by a lot of gunfire. The forces near the door yelled, "Breach, breach now!" And the remained forces poured through the opening, disabling the remaining Covenant who appeared to be confused and looking behind them.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nick: "And that is what I have been doing while all you guys have been taking a grand tour of the countryside, chief."

Nick, Bogo and the part of the ZPD force were walking with this human thing named Drew who was carrying Judy followed by Finnick and Tala.

Nick had given Bogo a quick run down of events at the facility, and Bogo had dispatched elite forces and various ZPD units to capture the Covenant spread throughout while they headed to a storage area next the garage at which he had worked earlier. Bogo sent a large force down towards the subway. Hopefully the Covenat down there would be spread all over once they realized there was no attack coming from the railway.

It was a huge logistical nightmare as well as dangerous capturing and detaining all the Covenant and collecting the important evidence in the facility. Nick left that to Bogo and the Elite teams from Zootopia to figure out. He only had one mission right now. Nick found the locker he was looking for. Office McHorn snapped the locked door open, and Nick pulled out a small black case he had noted earlier when taking inventory.

He flipped the case open and inside was an injection gun, a large vial and about twenty small cartridge vials of a light bluish purple liquid.

Drew: _hesitantly_ "How do you know this will work?"

Nick: "It had a note inside that said it was confirmed across multiple species."

Drew: "But how do you know this is the anti-serum?"

Nick: "Well it looks nothing like the serum. I must have shipped out a two hundred liters of the fake serum and destroyed the original. They needed the anti-serum for Phase II apparently and it would make sense they would ship some for testing first."

Drew: "Logically it does makes sense."

Nick: "Besides how much worse could it get?" The fox looked at Judy who was ignoring everyone mindlessly eating some cherries out of Drew's hand.

Drew: _worried_ "It could kill her or make her condition worse?"

Nick: "Well I have nothing else to suggest. Do you want to just leave her this way?"

Drew: _sighs_ "I suppose not. One vial per dose I assume?"

Nick: "Yep. Who gets the honors?"

Nick looks to Tala, Bogo and Drew.

The three confer and tell Nick, "You found it. Do it Nick"

Nick injects Judy with the test serum.

Nothing happens at first as everyone stands in a semi circle staring at Judy. She then lifts her head looking around at everyone staring at her, and then her eyelids close halfway and she falls asleep.


	34. Bunny in the Box

Judy woke to a nightmare.

She smashed his paws helplessly against this invisible box. She hammered her head against its walls thrashing in frustration. It was no use. Nothing she attempted did any good. She was trapped. Trapped worse than if she had been in the cage she had woken to just a month past, but at least then there was hope even if it was minuscule. Here there was none. Here she was left forgotten by time. She was trapped in an invisible box, one of her own making. The box fit like a seamless glove surrounded her face, her whiskers, her paws, her tail. It fit so tightly she couldn't speak, she couldn't make a sound, not even a noise. She couldn't move. She is locked in place as if an invisible force is pressing on all sides paralyzing her.

What has happened to her? Is she in hell? Is this eternity? What possible thing could she have done to deserve this torment? No one deserved this no matter how horrid the crime. She would not wish this existence on her worst enemy. She longed for her time being tortured. She wished someone could come and cut her, rend her flesh, rip her open, tear her apart piece by piece, anything. At least the pain would tell her she was still alive even if for a brief moment. At least someone would acknowledge she existed, that she even mattered at all even as an object of ridicule and abject hate. Here she was less than all of this. It was as if her existence had been erased. Her worth had been judged and found lacking any value.

She sobbed, but no tears would come. She wasn't even allowed the tender embrace of moisture on her eyes apparently. There was no link to the outside. She strained to feel the link to her sister, but it was severed as if cut by a giant pair of scissors. She thought of her parents. She could see them looking in on her box but seeing nothing. Their faces melted and were replaced by her friend Nick. She saw his easy smile, his laugh, but he could not see her either. He looked past her only seeing the void. The vast emptiness that was her world. Finally she saw a new face. A face strange unlike any she had encountered in her life yet one she had come to find comforting. It was a human named Drew. This human was looking at her but saw nothing. He smashed against her box. He shouted and screamed. He was looking directly at her. Someone was actually trying to reach her but she couldn't respond. She screamed at the top of her lungs " **I AM HERE! PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T ABANDON ME!** "

But there was no sound. There was no recognition. The only thing she saw was sadness and despair in his eyes as he looked upon her worthlessness. She was in a nightmare but she was not asleep. She was not awake. She was somewhere in between. Stuck in between layers of existence. Folded into the fabric of the past and the future. Buried in a minuscule point in time. She closed her eyes and prayed for death, for an end to this existence that did not even exist.

She opened her eyes and saw…

She saw faces she knew. She saw faces she loved. She saw her kindred sister Tala, she saw her friend Finnick, she saw her best friend Nick, she saw her new friend Drew, she saw her boss Chief Bogo, she saw her good friend and colleague McHorn.

She wondered if this was the end. She had heard that your life flashed before your eyes before you died. She heard you would see the lives that had touched you, the lives that mattered to you and the significant events of your life before the final termination.

Well there were some that were missing and she didn't see any events. Where were her parents? Where was her graduation from the ZPD academy? Where were the many cases she solved and all the animals of her beloved Zootopia she had saved? Apparently she had been lied to… all of this did not happen, but it was good to at least see many of those she cherished before the final end.

Was she being punished because she couldn't save her Zootopia from this conspiracy, this unholy alliance between this human world and this unknown group whose insurrection would mean suffering and ruin for the home she so loved? She had tried! Oh how she had tried! She had done everything she could possibly do. Why was she being punished when she had done everything she could think of? She guessed she would die with the mystery. She closed her eyes one final time and embraced the cold fingers of death.

"Judy?"

Strange… she heard a voice.

"Judy, are you awake?"

She heard the voice again. Was it God?

"Judy, are you there?"

No, she recognized the voice. It was a new voice but one she had heard a great deal recently.

She felt something warm touch her fur. It stroked her head and ears.

She opened her eyes again.

She saw the faces from before all intently looking at her expectantly. She saw it was the human Drew stroking her head and speaking to her.

She wasn't dead.

* * *

 

Judy: _extremely_ _confused_ "Wha… what happened?"

The immense tension in the room instantly scattered to the winds as everyone staring at her let out a collective sigh.

Everyone began speaking to her at once until she heard the deep bellowing voice of Chief Bogo.

Bogo: _authoritatively_ "Enough! One at a time! Do not overwhelm her! She has been through enough. Let the… human… tell her since he was there from the start. I am curious myself as no one has a said a word as they have been a bit preoccupied with Judy just not dying and I have been a bit busy issuing orders."

Drew moved to the seat next to her and gently took her paw in his hand.

Drew: _worried_ "How are you feeling?"

Judy: _confused_ "Um... tired and weak. But I feel better than I have felt in my entire life. I am out of the box and that is the greatest feeling I can possibly imagine."

Everyone look around confused.

Judy described the internal hell she had experienced since returning to Zootopia. She could see the horrid looks on the faces of her friends and Tala was openly weeping.

Her sister ran to her and hugged her, and both of them sobbed uncontrollably.

When Judy had finally composed herself she asked,

Judy: _curiously_ "What happened to me?"

Drew: "They apparently hit you with a shot of the serum before you entered the dimensional transfer. I thought it was just a tranquilizer as you acted just as if hit with one. But after hearing from Nick here about their plans..." Drew held up the dossier information Nick had provided him and Bogo. "… and the research you and I found they were doing, apparently they developed a genetic modification which would turn off your evolved higher functions. Well after hearing your description, I will modify that description and say it put up a barrier between your evolved mind and your primitive DE-evolved self essentially trapping your mind in your body outwardly leaving only a primitive animal capable of only the basic functions."

Drew: "What I find curious is there were certain very brief moments when you had recognition with myself, Tala and Nick. It is as if your memories of certain individuals had transcended from higher associations and had imprinted into your primal mind."

Nick: _curious_ "I want to know how this primitive self defended this human… Drew… from me."

Judy: _shocked_ " **What?** "

Nick and Drew described what had happened when Judy had acted to defend Drew from an angry and confused Nick.

Judy: _uncertain_ "I… I don't know… I don't remember."

Drew: _curiously_ "I am curious as well. The only thing I can think of is that certain extreme situations can transcend the barrier. That your feelings or bond can overcome the effects of the serum. You saw two people you were closely bonded to in extreme conflict and you acted on instinct."

Nick: _apologetically_ "I am really sorry about all that by the way." _smiling_ "Well your strange appearance did not help matters. You are an odd creature."

Drew: _smiling_ "I have been called a lot worse. I thought Tala was gonna give me a thumping as well if your little fox friend Finnick hadn't intervened."

Judy: _shocked staring at Tala_ " **What?** "

Drew: _laughing_ "I guess it was beat the crap out of the human day. Welcome to Zootopia where humans are attacked, clawed and reviled. Not that I can really blame you with all that has gone on. But I suspect we will get to that in a bit."

Tala: _hugging Drew_ "I am sorry I wanted to beat the crap out of you."

Drew: _smiling_ "I guess I have one of those faces."

Drew then proceeded to tell Judy what had happened to her or more accurately around her while she was trapped in the box. Tala and Finnick added their story and their involvement. Nick briefly described how he had gotten here and what he had been up to leading to the ultimate location and injection of the antiserum.

Drew: _humbled_ "You have Nick here to thank for saving you from your mental torment. I am in your debt Nick beyond words. I am also in awe at your resourcefulness dealing with this entire Covenant single handily… or should I say _pawily_." _chuckling to himself_ "It sounds like you were as busy as Judy and I were."

Judy: "Covenant?"

Nick: "That is what they call themselves Carrots. This predator conspiracy to take over control of Zootopia."

Judy: "Predator takeover? I am so confused. There is so much we didn't know while on the human world."

Bogo: "Well I have been learning more and more from this discussion, but I think we need to compile all the information we have obtained including these critical computer files the fox… I mean…. Nick has provided. We need to do a full debrief, interrogate all the prisoners and make sure all this Covenant's operations in the greater area are contained. We need to capture all agents and weapons in the field and make sure any of them Sergeant Wilde didn't disable with his sabotage are defeated."

Judy: _surprised_ "Sergeant Wilde? How long have I been away?"

Nick: s _miling to Judy_ "Salute me when you are talking to a ranking officer!"

Judy: _amused_ "Really Nick, salute you?"

Nick: _frowning_ "Don't you respect the chain of command? Or are those eloquent words you spoke at the academy a bunch of hogwash?"

Judy: _frowning_ "Nick, that is insulting to pigs."

Nick: _serious_ "Maybe they should called it bunnywash then. You leave the ZPD for over a month and all your training, respect for the law and the chain of command go out the window. Salute me!"

Judy: _flummoxed as she gives a hesitant salute to Nick_ "Oookay, sir."

Bogo: _fuming_ "Wilde! You are out of control! If you don't quit treating her like this I will make Judy a Lieutenant and make you salute her!"

Bogo: _grumbling to himself_ "Arrogant fox. Out of control. Give him a little reward and this is what we get..."

Nick looks to Judy and then Bogo and thinks to himself and gets a big smile turning his back on Bogo facing Judy so Bogo doesn't see the expression.

Nick: _serious voice while grinning at Judy_ "Stand up straight officer! Tuck in your shirt. And get a damn uniform. What are you wearing, pajamas?"

Judy: _curiously with a slight grin forming_ "Um… these are human clothes Drew got me."

Nick: _shaking his head_ "Wipe that grin off your face! I see the reason for your disrespect. You are jealous. Jealous someone is better than you. Someone achieved goals far faster than the first rabbit police officer. Well I am the first fox police officer and the first to become Sergeant. You aren't Bogo's favorite anymore. Jealousy doesn't become you Carrots!"

Bogo is fuming and about to explode.

Nick: _arrogantly_ "Looks like I will be taking over the driving duties from now on. Oh I see you saying no but you **will** respect the chain of command. No more bad rabbit driving. Citizens of Zootopia will feel much safer now."

Bogo: _steaming mad speaking to Nick_ " **ENOUGH!** Fox you have really gone too far! You have let this promotion go to your furry head! Do you want me to take away your field commission?"

Nick: _slyly smiling at Bogo his favorite expression to piss off Buffalo Butt_ "After I saved your sorry asses and half of Zootopia? How will that look Chief?"

Bogo: _steaming greater and then getting an idea and turning to Judy_ "Fine! Officer Hopps I am promoting you to Sergeant effective immediately for your meritorious and heroic acts in the name of Zootopia while on this human world!"

Bogo salutes Judy.

Judy with a shocked expression slowly salutes Bogo back.

Judy: _hesitantly_ "Ummm… thanks Chief but I haven't even told you what I did on the human world."

Bogo: _apathetically_ "Don't care."

Judy looks at him annoyed.

Bogo: _reluctantly_ "Okay I know you. I am sure you were busy saving the world while there, am I right?" Bogo looks at Drew.

Drew: _nodding and smiling at Judy_ "Of course sir, she was a driven machine to save your entire world. It was all I could do to keep up."

Bogo: _satisfied_ "There, it is settled. I have to check on other more important things than dealing with you two."

Bogo strolls off purposefully to speak with several officers updating him on the status of Operation Power Plant Containment.

Nick: _softly speaking out of the side of his mouth while watching Bogo leave_ "You can thank me later Carrots."

Drew, Tala, Judy and Nick all turn to each other and laugh hysterically.

* * *

 

Chief Bogo, the ZPD Elite forces, ZPD Precint One officers from Judy's home office and ZPD emergency unit officers taken from all other ZPD Divisions completed operations in the power plant capturing and subduing almost all the workers, scientists, guards and agents. The missing female sheep and brown bunny were located unharmed and still unconscious in the prisoner holding section Finnick and Tala had indicated to ZPD forces. They were taken to emergency services for a thorough examination and released to their loved ones as soon as they were cleared. Nick identified Tigerstone and the Lion from his briefing as two of the leaders. Nick and the team held interrogations of these leaders while Drew helped forensics officers with the computer data as a lot of the computers were human systems and they needed Drew to extract all the protected data.

As soon as Tala started telling her story, Judy freaked out when she found out their parents had no idea where Tala even was and immediately grabbed her sister and raced outside the power plant where they could get cell phone service and called their parents. Apparently Stu and Bonnie had been sitting by the television when reports began to come in of the events at the power plant and all around the suburbs including Bunnyburrow.

When Bonnie saw her two daughters on the screen she began crying and soon Stu and an entire roomful of Hopps were gathered around the phone shouting questions.

Judy: "We are quite busy here and the story will have to wait until later, but I wanted to call and let you know that Tala and I are okay."

Tala: _sticks her head into the screen_ "I found Judy Mom!"

Bonnie: "Bun Bun, Tally… It is such a relief to see you two are okay. You both had us so worried."

Judy: _concerned_ "Is everything okay there? We knew that part of the attacks were in Bunnyburrow, but the reports I saw said that the attacks were contained there."

Stu: "Hey Jude, Jude the Dude, Tala Wala… There was a big tussle downtown but apparently most of the troublemakers were sick and throwing up or on the toilet and the ones that were not could not get those things they are call ACRs on the news to fire. A couple even blew up in their paws. They were immediately swarmed by a mob of the local constables and three families of bunnies that had been downtown for the festival."

Tala and Judy both whistled thinking about how many rabbits three entire families would be and said in an awed tone: "That's an **awful** **lot** of bunnies"

Bonnie: "Your father and I and the family had been home watching the news as soon as we saw something about a huge mobilization of ZPD last night. So we missed the festival."

Several of the their brothers and sisters started hopping up and down yelling.

"We missed all the fun. We should have been there. I wanted to see the gun things. How come everyone else gets to have all the excitement!"

Bonnie: _frustrated_ "No Pop Pop Judy was not eaten. She is right here on the phone see?"

Pop Pop: "I am seeing two of her. Damn it, get me my medicine again for my eyes. I'm having another episode. Well Judy, am glad to see you weren't eaten, yet. Stay away from foxes girl… did I ever tell about the time that me and your Maw Maw ran into three foxes on…"

Bonnie: "Sorry about that Bun Bun. I know you have a lot to do as I am sure you are involved in all that is going on. Tally we have been so worried about you. You have no idea. When we found out you were in Zootopia after hearing you bought a bus ticket from Mabel, we called Nick and Finnick but couldn't reach anyone. You have had everyone here so worried."

Tala: _smiling_ "I did it Mom. No one thought I could, but I did it. Everyone told me I was making it up about knowing where Judy was."

Bonnie: "I am just glad you two are okay. Call us later as soon as you can and let us know what happened to you. We love you so very much."

Stu: "Same here. I want to see you girls as soon as possible."

Judy and Tala: "Bye, we love you guys."

With that Judy and Tala went back inside the Command Center and met up with Finnick.

Finnick: "Sounds like Nick is going to have to spend a whole day just going through his messages."

Tala stayed with her sister describing her and Finnick's adventures trying to find Judy. Judy was very impressed with her sisters bravery, intuition and acting ability. At one point Judy got quite upset and started yelling "Finnick! Come back here!" Finnick had been with them for most of the conversation helping to add input, but was conveniently absent when they came to the part when Tala talked about being a bit under dressed, well a lot more than a bit. Finnick had conveniently decided that him and _Betty_ would be more useful with interrogations than be anywhere close to Judy for this particular conversation.

There had a huge number of injuries and some deaths on both sides. The ZPD had come to the power plant expecting this possibility and there was an entire temporary hospital setup outside for triage. Patients were stabilized and sent to various Zootopia hospitals for further treatment. One entire hospital was secured with maximum security for just handling Covenant patients. The amount of ZPD funerals would be more than for many years combined, but the casualties were a fraction of what they could have been if not for the heroic actions of Nick, Drew, Finnick and Tala.

Bogo had sent almost all remaining ZPD officers from other divisions to assist in operations in the field at all the locations Nick had identified. They combined with local authorities to subdue and confiscate all agents and weapons. Nick's **Foul Feast** , **Sticky Icky** and **Aqua Fur** had been highly effective in disabling most of the agents and weapons used for parts of the Covenant's Operation Freedom outside the power plant. However a few areas did encounter resistance and causalities from agents who did not receive or consume the meals provided or had weapons shipped to them prior to Nick's sabotage. All officers and local authorities that had everything under control in their regions assisted in surrounding and containing these groups. However reports came in that nearly a thousand citizens were hit with the serum and held hostage. Once the ZPD forces convinced the Covenant agents that all their forces at the power plant headquarters and other phases of Operation Freedom were captured, they surrendered, however they were left with over a thousand victims of the same affliction that had disabled Judy.

Upon hearing this news Judy became frantic as she knew what these poor mammals were experiencing and located Drew.

Judy: _frantic_ "Drew, we have to do something before these poor citizens lose their minds and sanity as I almost did!"

Drew: "Judy, we only found enough anti-serum at the plant for about a hundred doses. We have already shipped most of this out to treat some of the victims. They have prioritized those with critical jobs and parents of children who have no one to care for them. You have several labs trying to reverse engineer the anti-serum, but they don't have any expertise in gene therapy and don't have the advanced equipment so it may never happen."

Judy: _thinking_ "Didn't the humans have anti-serum prepared for Phase II?"

Drew: "I believe so although I don't know how much they have prepared."

Judy: _hopeful_ "Could you get them to send this?"

Drew: "I believe they would eventually ship it after some negotiation that convinced them they are dealing with the rightful Zootopia government and that the Covenant was indeed a rebel group. But I believe the more expedient solution is to convince them we are the Covenant and we need it early for Phase II.”

Judy: _excited_ "Can we do that immediately!"

Drew: _hesitantly_ "We don't have Mia on this end. We need some of their scientists familiar with the equipment. Realize that the forces we are dealing with are monumental. Any mistakes could result in catastrophic consequences destroying the entire plant and anyone within a large distance surrounding it."

Drew: "Until you get your own experts we are going to need the cooperation of the Covenant scientists both to enable communication as well as convincing the human authority we are the Covenant and require the supplies now."

Judy: _visibly upset_ "But these scientists have committed crimes against all of Zootopia!"

Drew: "In human history we have had to do the same for the greater good. My country, the US, recruited and protected a huge number of former Nazi scientists to aid in the space program and were instrumental in helping to gain technological dominance in numerous sciences. The horrific research some of these humans did on other humans was similar to what you experienced or far worse. But this research was still used and many scientists who carried out these experiments were pardoned in order to obtain this data. During World War II, The Japanese Government's Unit 731 biological and chemical warfare research division carried out horrific experiments on over a quarter of a million Chinese, Russian and Asian prisoners. The experiments were some of the most heinous in all of human history and on an unheard of scale yet these scientists were given immunity in exchange for their data and knowledge in biological warfare."

Judy is looking very upset about to speak…

Drew: "Yes yes I know… humans are monsters… but decisions like these are not always black and white. The point is that while their actions were reprehensible, the governments felt that the knowledge and potential good of their research was greater than punishing them for their actions. It is extremely difficult to stomach. The actions of your scientists here were not even remotely as reprehensible as these scientists. Many scientists such as Mia get involved in some projects simply for the challenges offered and any motivations of governments are secondary. They don't go in wanting to destroy lives as for them it is more about the scientific curiosity and challenge. I personally can't stomach the actions of these Unit 731 scientists and do not agree with this decision in their case as I believe they should have had the harshest possible punishment. But I can see the greater good provided by other brilliant scientists who ultimately helped humanity once they were not working for misguided and malevolent governments and leaders."

Judy is not sure how to respond and looks pensive.

Drew: "Think of it this way Judy. What is the greater good? Pardoning a few scientists in order to help give almost a thousand innocent Zootopians back their lives and potentially offering a new relationship with another world, or punishing these few scientists and leaving the citizens deprived of their lives and minds?"

Judy: _dejected_ "It is not even a question. The citizens must come first."

Drew: "You can punish the leaders, the soldiers and hundreds of others, but by pardoning and gaining the cooperation of a few you can save the lives of so many."

Judy: "You are right. It is not black and white. Each instance has to be considered on a case by case basis."

Drew: "Yep it is gray just like you."

Judy: _cheering up_ "Oh funny, so funny, jokes again I see. So this is how you plan on making a living here in Zootopia? Well you are gonna be starving unless you get better material."

Drew: _stops and thinks_ "I never thought about that. Everything has been so crazy. What the hell **do** I do here?"

Judy: _smiling mischievously looking him up and down_ "Oh I have some ideas… but never mind right now… we'll talk about that later. We have citizens to save!"

After a great deal of convincing and several calls to city hall, The ZPD and Zootopia authority agreed to provide full pardons and jobs to the scientists working on the dimensional transfer project in exchange for full cooperation, all research and data and full testimony. Drew ended up working with the same badger that had called the guards to attack him. He had been treated at the temporary medical center for all the claw marks. He realized any ill will he felt was trivial compared to the greater good of getting the anti-serum and establishing future negotiations with the human side. After some brief negotiation they were able to convince the humans they needed to move up their schedule for Phase II and they needed as much anti-serum as possible immediately. They were able to obtain over two thousands doses within hours and rapidly got the doses out to the affected citizens with a full staff of medical personnel to oversee the treatment and recovery.

After talking to the scientists, examining all the data obtained from the facility, compiling testimony from the interrogations, and combining this with the data and knowledge Drew and Judy had obtained from the human side, they were ready to present their findings to the ZPD Administration, The Mayor, the Zootopia Council and select representatives of the news media.

Drew had wondered about provided this information to the media, but Judy had assured him that the rumors out there right now were ten times worse that the reality, and they needed to get all the facts out immediately in order to try and curtail the current mass panic and hysteria gripping Zootopia.

Because Judy was a well known figure for her work solving several high profile cases and the fact she had returned alive and relatively unharmed from another world that was at the center of this conspiracy, she was chosen as the lead presenter. Drew was added to the program as an expert to help with questions and to explain the human side. They also added several scientists who had worked on the Covenant's transfer project as well as testimony from some figures in the Covenant in exchange for lighter sentences.


	35. Bunny Broadcast

**J** udy stood poised on a stage behind a podium with a screen. Cameras displayed her image on the massive screen so that everyone could see her diminutive figure easier. She appeared apprehensive but confident. Her resolve, mettle and control ready to be tested to their limits, but her conviction was steadfast and her energy and passion never in doubt. For this bunny was a vastly improved and far more seasoned officer with respect to dealing with the media than the one that had nearly ruined her friendship with her best friend Nick with her careless comments. Other presenters and experts sat on chairs behind her with a view of the screen.

Judy: "I want to thank all the members of the ZPD, The Mayor and her administration, The Zootopia Council, all Zootopia officials and the members of the media for joining us here today. Firstly please refrain from asking questions until the end of the presentation as we have a great deal of information to cover. There will be some brief periods for questions during some sections of the presentation and a period at the end for questions on other topics."

Judy: "The conspiracy that we have uncovered was on a scale beyond any imagining. Initially it revolved around many missing mammals that disappeared without a trace. During the investigation of these missing mammals, I fell victim to the same conspiracy and found myself in the same predicament as these others victims. We were transferred to another dimension or world where we were experimental lab subjects for an entirely new alien species of mammal known as humans."

There was a great deal of murmuring in the room at this information and some irate comments. There was also some angry remarks about humans and sullen looks at Drew.

Judy: "Please reserve judgment until all the facts are presented. To some extent the humans were as much victims as anyone. It has taken me quite awhile to come to this realization considering I experienced first hand the torment and suffering at their paws… I mean hands… the human word for their strange front paws. But the humans were not completely at fault as they were deceived by a Zootopia group who call themselves The Covenant at the head of this conspiracy."

A bit of murmuring followed this statement.

Judy: "The Covenant is a group of predators who felt they had been persecuted and treated as second class citizens by Zootopia society. It was formed in secret by seven very powerful and influential predator leaders who came together in secret many years ago and decided to form a pact to build a covert society of predators who would seek opportunities to put predators sympathetic to their cause in positions of power and look for a chance to gain an upper paw politically and financially with the ultimate goal of a predator controlled society. The power it built was used to defend predators from what they saw as oppression from the prey population."

Judy: "After the Bellwether incident this group was driven to plot revenge and aggressively sought plans which would bring predators in control of Zootopia rather than prey. Now I want to point out that this **only** applies to an extremely small number of predators that were members or agents of this Covenant and did not represent all predators but a **tiny** fraction. As we will uncover later, predators themselves ultimately struck the greatest blow to defeat to this organization and save Zootopia. It is very important to distinguish between members of a relatively small organization and an entire category of numerous mammal species."

Judy: "The ultimate goal of The Covenant was called Operation Freedom. In Operation Freedom invasion forces supplied with a type of assault rifle known as ACRs, Adaptive Combat Rifles, which were capable of firing hundreds of rounds of high velocity ammunition in a minute as well as explosives in order to defeat any possible resistance. In addition forces would be armed with weapons capable of firing hundreds of rounds of a serum which was designed to reduce citizens to a primitive primal state so that they would give no resistance and could be held hostage. This group planned on using these weapons of mass devastation to control all the key suburbs and utilities as well as the roads and trains. They would hold the food production, manufacturing, power and shipment of goods into and out of Zootopia hostage. In addition they could hold the outside population hostage threatening to kill them easily if their demands were not met. They would threaten to keep huge civilian populations as primitive beasts unless more of their demands were met. Ultimately they wanted be given full control of the government and the police force placing predators sympathetic to their organization in command."

Judy: "Ultimately their plan was foiled by a predator, a brave fox, my best friend and ZPD partner Sergeant Nick Wilde, who had been following the leads for the missing mammals for many weeks after my disappearance and discovered this conspiracy and the plans of The Covenant. By risking his life contacting the ZPD and the Zootopia Council, as well as personally sabotaging most of the food, weapons and serum of this Operation Freedom, this brave fox proved that predators themselves can be the greatest assets to Zootopia and its future. He proves that just because mammals believe you will act a certain way because of your species or sex or any other reason, you don't have to. You can stand up for what is right. You can be your own individual and Officer Wilde believed in something far greater than himself, he believed in the ideals of Zootopia and the right of its citizens to be free."

Judy beams over at Nick who smiles back and waves.

Judy: "He doesn't know we planned this, but Mayor Le Pew has something to give you. Please come up to the stage and join the Mayor, Nick."

The fellow officers around Nick push him up and get him moving toward the stage while Nick feels a bit embarrassed by all the attention, but makes his way to the stage with the Mayor, a middle aged slim female skunk with an enormous beautifully styled black and white tail.

Mayor Le Pew places a large gold medal around Nick's neck with a beautiful yellow and green ribbon that matches his eyes.

Mayor Le Pew: "For valor far exceeding the call of duty to protect and serve the citizens of Zootopia. For behavior exemplifying the greatest ideals and values of our land. I present you Officer Nick Wilde with the Zootopia Medal of Exceptional Valor. Only five other mammals in the **history** of Zootopia have ever received this award. You are also the first predator to ever receive this award. I am very proud to be mayor and have members of the ZPD like you guarding the good citizens of our city. Thank you Officer Wilde."

She shakes his paw. Judy runs over and gives him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Nick is stunned and looks bashful for a brief moment and then his smile beams as he waves to the standing ovation from everyone present.

Mayro Le Pew: _whispering_ "Nick, do you wish to say any words?"

Nick: _whispering_ "I am not a speech maker but I can say a couple if you wish."

Mayor Le Pew: _whispering_ "Please do."

Nick: _clearing his throat first_ "I just want to thank all the brave officers of the ZPD, ZPD Elite forces and all law enforcement, volunteers and emergency personnel for their incredible bravery and quick response to this threat. I want to thank my new human friend Drew, Finnick and Tala for helping to bring my friend and partner Officer Hopps back home safely from literally a world away and helping to save so many lives with their actions in the Power Plant Operation. I find myself honored to work along side such brave and dedicated people thinking of others besides themselves. "

Nick: "I also want to thank The Covenant without whom we would not be having this wonderful party and I would not be getting this awesome necklace. I want to thank them for being so organized. They made it so much easier for me to find everything I needed in order to screw them over royally. Now I am not one for public speaking so any who know me know that such words are out of character for myself so I am going to let Carrots do the yapping and go enjoy playing with my shiny new medal. Thanks."

Nick receives a second standing ovation which continues for awhile until he gets frustrated and starts making a get down motion with his arms finally getting people to stop applauding.

Judy: "Well that was a bit impromptu, but well worth it. I am happy to report at this time all active Covenant forces have been captured and contained. We have arrested three of the seven heads of the Covenant thanks to information obtained from some of their leaders. There are many of these Covenant that remain at large, and I ask that the public help us locate any suspected members of this organization. There will be a help line number and there is a new app which shows information on every current suspect at large."

Judy presents the app on the large screen to everyone. The call information and suspects photos and all known information is displayed and can be sorted including where they were last seen and any reports of their activity.

Judy: "You can report any of these suspects by clicking the picture and can text their whereabouts and any information you can provide to help apprehend them. In fact this incident has helped improve the safety of Zootopia and will be permanent so that citizens can help report any crimes or suspected crimes using this app and can record evidence and immediately upload it to ZPD. The safety of all citizens is the responsibility of everyone and with the publics help we can make Zootopia safer than ever before."

Judy: "Now that current status of the case has been covered, I wanted to briefly cover the events that led up to this conspiracy and the role of the humans. There has been so much wild speculation concerning how everything occurred from talk of how humans have come from outer space with plans to steal our people in order to eat them in wild feasts and slaughter them in blood sacrifices to strange alien gods. I want to tell you these are not true and with the help of our human friend Drew we will discuss the truth of their role."

Judy: "The circumstances that led to this ultimate plan known as Operation Freedom centered around a single power plant. Members of the Covenant had several operatives in positions of power at West Plant, the western most power plant for Zootopia. In the past roughly twenty-five years ago, there was a containment breach and a huge mass of energy was expelled in a very small area. This explosion ruptured the dimensional wall in space time at that point and created a weakness between our dimension and the human dimension. I will not go into scientific detail concerning this as it is irrelevant to this discussion and quite complicated and theoretical. It is the result of this weakness in space that is of concern. Apparently the humans sensed this breach and detected a source of energy near this point that we have in greater abundance on Zootopia. They call this He-3 while we call it Power-8 as it's periodic position is two to the third power. For purposes of this discussion we will refer to it as He-3 in order to be consistent with the detailed human discussion on the topic later."

Judy: "He-3 escapes the planet easily on the human's Earth while it has remained contained and fairly accessible on our world. We are not sure why this happened as both our worlds appear to be nearly identical in most other ways. For our discussion we will just simply say it is extremely valuable on their world and is an easy source of clean power on ours. Regardless the humans attempted to break the weakness at that point in order to obtain the He-3."

Judy: "The Covenant had several operatives working at the power plant when the humans tried to breach the dimensional horizon at what was determined to be a source of He-3, and as they tried to capture it for use in a reactor they had built. The breach occurred at one of their containment modules used to store He-3 and was sucked through the dimensional vortex. The Covenant kept this secret at the plant and took steps to remove anyone not loyal to them working there."

Judy: "The vortex was opened regularly for testing with humans sending communications and measuring equipment through testing what this was. The Covenant operatives figured out how to receive these communications and sent their own back. The two sides established a communication system that worked through the dimensional window and establish a regular dialog each day. The energy needed to maintain the window was substantial and the humans only had a limited amount of power until they could adapt the He-3 they had captured initially to power a reactor. During their dialogue the two sides discussed this He-3 and The Covenant told them they had a lot more of this substance which they used to leverage a negotiated pact which they would use to undertake Operation Freedom."

Judy: "I will now play a recording I have from the lead human scientist who explains in details the entire scenario and justification from their standpoint."

Apparently the clicking sound that Drew had thought was Judy preparing to attack the human scientists was actually Judy recording the entire conversation with the human version of her handy carrot pen which Drew noticed was sticking out of her front pocket now. Its bright orange top visible. The human recorder may have not been shaped like a carrot, but it did record the evidence. The recording had been cleaned up and enhanced for the presentation.

After the recording was played there was a good deal of murmuring and Judy introduced Drew and mentioned he was the other individual on the tape questioning the human scientists. They had a brief break while they allowed questions to be submitted via portable devices and they viewed them all to determine which questions should be addressed.

Once they had a compiled a list of questions and given it to Drew, Judy handed the podium over to the human and sat beside him giving him encouragement.

Drew: "I want to thank Judy and the Zootopia officials for inviting me to participate at this presentation considering all that has happened with respect to my species. I am honored to be a representative of a sort for humanity and to try and explain their motivation and actions with respect to this entire conspiracy. It demonstrates to me how Zootopians are open minded and willing to not prejudge without hearing all the facts."

Drew: "The first question concerns why humans felt it necessary to experiment on citizens of Zootopia for scientific research. For the most part, the scientists experimenting on the citizens were not aware that the Zootopians were an intelligent and sentient species. They believed they were normal primitive Earth mammals. The Covenant and a select few higher level officials knew the truth, but those actually performing the experiments did not. Judy and I discovered this first hand when one of these scientists actually discovered the truth and fainted from shock. The Covenant developed collars to suppress speech and sent the victims naked while unconscious wearing these collars with instructions they be kept in small cages. The naked part served two purposes as travel through the dimension needs to be done unclothed and second it made them appear as normal Earth primitive mammals. The collars would prevent speech disguising their intelligence, and sending them unconscious prevented their minds from going insane trying to comprehend the monumental forces at work during the transfer. This was something I discovered firsthand. It also kept them cooperative and easy to control. The small cages prevented them from standing on two legs and thus appearing like normal Earth mammals walking on all fours."

Drew: "As far as the justification for those who knew they were intelligent mammals, I can only say in their defense that they had been lied to by The Covenant who had told them that these were rebels spies that were to be executed anyway and their lives were forfeit. The humans did not have any evidence that would dispute this and their desperation to save the human race and their planet overrode any moral compunction about experimenting on a living sentient being."

Drew: "Now while I understand that the thought of a Zootopian experimenting on another Zootopian is reprehensible. You must understand that humans have been experimenting on other humans as well as other primitive mammals for many thousands of years. In some circumstances in order to gain a military or tactical advantage, misguided governments would do horrendous experiments to other humans to gain knowledge to aid in a conflict. The humans saw this as a similar situation needing to experiment on the victims as a means of providing a serum to aid this Covenant in their war."

Drew: "The question is what was the research was about. Through gene mapping and DNA isolation the human scientists were able to develop a serum which would block the subjects ability for higher level reasoning and essentially they would only be capable of primal thought.

They also built an antiserum which could restore this higher level of evolved thought. Subjects would essentially be trapped in their own bodies. They would retain their identity and memories but they could only act on primal urges and instincts. They also developed weapons to quickly spread the serum to vast numbers of population at once. The purpose of the serum was for the Covenant to control the population and essentially hold them hostage. They needed a method of controlling a huge amount of population and resources in order to hold Zootopia hostage but with a relatively small number of personnel. They could turn vast numbers of citizens into mindless primitives that could be easily controlled and herded and used as helpless hostages if Zootopia did not give in to their demands. If the Zootopians cooperated and acquiesced during Phase II of their operation, they would restore the affected mammals to their former evolved selves using the antiserum."

Drew: "The third questions involves the weapons and explosives provided. You ask why would humans have such things and why would they send them to Zootopia. Well the purpose of these was to pay for the He-3 provided by the Covenant as well as aid their ally in their conflict. Remember the humans thought they were helping their ally to defeat a horrible rebel force that was oppressing and enslaving them. The practice of providing arms and weapons to allies to defend themselves is very common for humanity. Governments arm other groups loyal to their goals all the time. The reason humanity has these weapons is simple yet complex. Much of human history has been marked by wars and conflicts. Having superior weapons would give an advantage over another group and thus provide a better chance to win the conflict. The Covenant needed these same weapons as a means for their small force to hold a great advantage over a foe with superior numbers and resources. The humans did not appear to know weapons of these kinds were unavailable in Zootopia. Whether this was because they didn't wish to know or didn't care is unknown. Now from what I understand all but a couple of these weapons and explosives have been accounted for. It is currently being debated whether to destroy all these weapons or to keep them in case of an emergency. I do know that you are currently working on legislation to ban any such weapons or ammunition in Zootopia with the highest penalty possible for possession. For your society, I believe this is a very prudent action. For humans weapons such as these are so widespread banning them completely is extremely difficult. In many cases the weapons have become part of the culture. I would suggest you remain very vigilant in enforcing this law and making sure all the weapons are never seen or used as you have seen first hand what carnage just a couple of these weapons can do."

Drew: "I would like to make a quick comment that humanity has so many more things to offer Zootopia than simply weapons, explosives and evil serums. The reason these are what humanity offered you is because that is what the Covenant requested for their conflict. Judy can attest to the whole host of wonderful things humanity can offer in order to improve life in Zootopia as she has experienced many of them firsthand. I encourage you not to give up on humanity, but to try and build a fresh new relationship that can be beneficial to both sides. Humanity was desperate to help save the human race and they were offered a lifeline and took it. If you are drowning in the ocean and someone throws you a rope, you don't question why they threw the rope, you only know whatever their motives are it is better than drowning."

There was a great deal of murmuring after this last statement.

It was at this point a middle aged female skunk who happened to be Mayor of Zootopia stood and loudly asked a question that most in the audience wished to know.

Mayor Le Pew: "How can we trust the humans in any future negotiations after what they have done?"

Chief Counselor Longshanks: _concerned_ "I agree, how can we negotiate with these potential monsters?"

There was a great deal of discussion from all the officials and the media in the audience at this and as several arguments broke out.

Judy stood and spoke loudly into the microphone at the podium as she glanced up at the human, "We could trust Drew."

Drew gave Judy a questioning look.

Mayor Le Pew: _curiously_ "What do you mean Officer Hopps?"

Judy: "I mean Drew could negotiate for us. He could represent our interests as he would understand them far better than anyone else and be mindful to make sure both parties are satisfied. I have more of a reason to hate these humans than anyone after what has been done to me, but I have come to realize that they are not all bad. I have met several willing to help me, a total stranger, a wild animal and an extraterrestrial from their perspective, and they still risked and gave their own lives to help me and to help save Zootopia. I have learned that you can't judge based on their species but must judge based on their actions."

Drew: _looking with admiration at Judy_ "That is the so inspiring and heartfelt Judy, and I am so thankful for your open mindedness. But I am not a politician... I am not a negotiator or an ambassador."

Mayor Le Pew: "That is a good thing from my point of view. Great mammals were not born into it. Circumstances happened and they stepped up to the challenge and found a way to meet the challenge. I can think of no one else better suited to represent both parties."

There was a great deal of consensus from the entire collected body.

Mayor Le Pew: "Since everyone in our council is here I am sure we have a Quorum. I make a motion that we bring this to an immediate vote. Who seconds the motion that the human Drew… what is your last name?"

Drew: _deferentially_ "Stevens, Madam Mayor."

Mayor Le Pew: "Stevens be appointed as Ambassador and Chief Negotiator for Zootopia and the human world. Do I have a second?"

Bogo: "He is funny looking but I do second the motion."

As head of the ZPD for Precinct One, Bogo had a seat on the council.

Mayor Le Pew: "Please all cast your ballets and present them to the Chamberlain."

After a brief period where the votes collected and tabulated, the Chamberlain handed the results to the Mayor.

Mayor Le Pew: "The vote passes fourty-one for and zero against. Congratulations Mr. Ambassador. You will be assigned a budget and staff the same as all top level foreign ambassadors. I expect you in my office Monday early to handle all the paperwork and the swearing in ceremony."

Drew: "Mayor, is it possible to be sworn in now? I would like to immediately begin negotiations tonight to make sure any of mine and Judy's allies that survived are not harmed further, and I would like to negotiate for their release. I also wish to negotiate for the immediate return of any captive Zootopians or the remains of any deceased Zootopians. I also want to demand the return of all research, tissue samples or anything performed on or related to any Zootopia citizens."

Mayor Le Pew: _impressed_ "I see now we definitely do have the right mammal for the job."

Mayor Le Pew: _authoritatively_ "Now raise your right paw and repeat after me. I Drew Stevens..."


	36. Epilogue

Most of the guns, weapons and serum were recovered, and all but a small number of the leaders and agents of The Covenant had been arrested. There was still an extensive mammal hunt for the few that had escaped justice but it appeared fairly certain The Covenant would be unable to ever threaten Zootopia again. The anti-serum had worked on all but two of the unfortunate victims of this heinous liquid which trapped intelligent mammals in their own minds. Apparently doctors believed that these two animals had succumbed to insanity and would not recover. When scientists experimented with such forces as genetic manipulation, unintended consequences were often the result, and any research in these areas carried significant risk and no absolutes. A large supply of the anti-serum was kept on hand and distributed to various medical facilities in case of any future exposures from any undiscovered serum.

As she had expected, Mia had been unharmed. After discovering the truth of The Covenant and the fact they had been supporting a covert organization plotting against the population of an entire civilization, several significant changes were made to the human's dimensional transfer project. Dr. Luxor stepped down to pursue other work and with Drew's influence and insistence, Mia was hired to take over scientific leadership of the program. It helped make a convincing argument that she was the only qualified person to have friendly relations with a high profile citizen of Zootopia and also the Zootopia ambassador, as well as the fact that other than Dr. Luxor, she was the most qualified scientist on Earth. It helped to make things simpler for the government as well as they didn't know what to do with her anyway as she was far too high a profile scientist to _dispose of_.

Colonel Rich Hanson and two members of The Unit had somehow survived the battle in the facility. The Colonel had been shot three times and had lost two fingers but apparently he was a tough SOB that refused to die. Drew and The Colonel's numerous political and military allies negotiated a release and pardon for The Colonel and his men under the highest level of top secret classified clearance. Drew was allowed to talk with The Colonel updating him on the entire situation in Zootopia although certain words like Zootopia, aliens, dimension were considered classified and never used in communications in case of any breaches.

**_**Son, I am so proud of what you have been able to accomplish. I didn't think you had it inside you but an old war dog can be wrong sometime.** _ **

**Thanks Colonel, I am just sorry about the loss of your other men.**

**_They were soldiers son. They went into this mission with their eyes wide open. They were informed that the mission was one of the riskiest ever undertaken and all volunteered quite enthusiastically. A mission like yours was their version of playing in the Super Bowl. Death comes with_ ** **_the_ ** **_territory._ **

**_**Oh I might have been wrong about your ability to accomplish incredible things but I was not wrong about the rabbit. Take care of her.** _ **

**I will Colonel. I will consider your words but I can't promise anything. But being among her people has changed my opinion a significant amou** **n** **t. I wish you could see this place Colonel. It is unlike anything you could imagine.**

**_I bet. Maybe one day I can see it and you again but until then I am signing off._ **

**Colonel, I wanted to repay my debt to The Unit in full. I have negotiated a lucrative contract with the Government for you to provide additional security design and implementation for the entire facility and project for the foreseeable future.**

**_**You are always full of surprises now. It has been interesting knowing you. Can't say that about many people. Rich out.** _ **

Drew really missed his old friend but it couldn't be helped. He had many new friends and a very busy job to keep him occupied now.

* * *

 

Simon Filcher, some other laboratory technicians and higher level administrators at Cryodyne who had deceived the US Government about the actual work they were doing in their research facility regarding the sentient Zootopians, were prosecuted in secret and sentenced to incarceration at a top secret prison facility. This was one of the conditions of Judy and other Zootopia officials in order repair the relations between the US Government and the Zootopia Administration.

Three additional missing mammals were found still alive at a hidden Cryodyne research facility and returned to Zootopia. Their recovery was very tentative but Judy visited them regularly and hoped they could make a full recovery. Physically they were gradually recovering. But the important thing was that they were reunited with their families and friends. The mental anguish would take some time to heal.

Drew was able to negotiate the return of all the remains that could be recovered of any deceased Zootopians and these were returned to the families for burial and closure. All samples and remains of the Zootopian experimentation were returned to the Zootopia government and the research destroyed. Drew could not guarantee that all the evidence had truly been destroyed, but he believed the government was trying to do everything it could to rebuild the confidence of the Zootopia government and citizens.

The US government and Zootopians agreed it would be in the best interests of both that their existence be kept from the Earth population and they would do everything possible to make sure this was kept classified at the highest level hidden from even top level US officials. In Zootopia most of the story had been extensively covered in the media, and full disclosure helped to stop a great deal of panic and speculation. The Zootopia government tried to be as open and honest with their population as much as possible.

Because of the media attention, Drew had become a bit of a celebrity although he attempted to avoid any publicity. But Zootopians were very curious about these humans, and had crazy theories like humans being the missing link to their ancestors or **_Linkers_** as they liked to call themselves. Honey went beyond **_Linkers_** and was convinced that the humans were using evolution technology and were conspiring with the sheep to build a super sheep known as a _Wooly Aries_ to subjugate the people of Zootopia. She started a sub-group of **_Wooly Linkers_** who would share information about this conspiracy. She would drive Nick crazy with her evidence of genetic manipulation to develop this super sheep.

Nick and Judy asked Drew about this **_Linker_** movement one day and he looked at them as if they were a bit nuts at first. Drew told them that current human technology was nowhere close to developing this kind of genetic manipulation, but he could not rule out the possibility that Zootopia was a distant future version of the human Earth, and humans had manipulated the genetic code of mammals, but that humans had died out due to a disease or some other reason leaving only their creations. In order to have evolved naturally into their current forms, it would have taken hundreds of thousands of years. He postulated that it was possible this could have been accomplished in a shorter period for certain species with rapid reproductive cycles but it did not account for the telomeres of the mammals having human life-cycles. As the telomeres extended, the rate of evolution would have slowed. Nick's response to this was…

Nick: _frustrated_ "Forget I asked."

Judy: "I told you it was a bad idea."

Nick: "I was hoping for a simple yes or no."

Judy: _laughs_ "Drew doesn't know what one of those are."

Drew: _laughing_ "Sorry guys I thought you wanted to know my opinion."

Nick: _smiling_ "Lesson learned. Just don't talk to Honey **please**."

* * *

Drew's celebrity and status as the only human led to a great deal of pressure by the media for answers to numerous questions, and he was starting to have media following him wherever he went. There were still a lot of concerns the Zootopia public had about humans, and it had begun to grow steadily so he finally agreed to be interviewed by Zootopia's top media host Bull Mare and have it broadcast over all the major channels.

Judy: "Are you nervous?"

Drew: _nervously_ "Of course I am nervous Judy. I have never done live tv or any tv for that matter. And the fact that this will be seen by most of the public does not make matters any better. What if I say the wrong thing?"

Anteater Technician: _announcing to the room_ "Five minutes to air."

Judy: _holds his hand_ "I have some experience with that."

Drew: "Ah the Bellwether case. I remember you telling me about that. Well you are fairly used to the media now. I am worried I may make a mistake similar to yours back then."

Judy: _laughing_ "Just try and be honest and stick to the script. It is when you get nervous and start rambling you get in trouble with me."

Drew: _chuckling_ "Don't I know it. I still remember how upset you were when I told you I had pet rabbit caged for it's entire life."

Judy: _laughs_ "Word of advice. **Don't** bring that up in the interview."

Drew: "I have learned my lesson. Leave well enough alone."

Judy: "Just pretend you are talking to me."

Drew: _smiling_ "Gonna be hard. Bull is not very cute."

Judy: _punching him in the arm_ "Quit that. I will get you back for that."

Drew: "Hey I didn't say you were cute."

Judy: _punches him again_ _gently_ _smiling_ "The inference was there."

Anteater Technician: _annoyingly at Drew_ "Places everyone!"

Judy: _hopeful_ "Good luck."

Drew walks onto the set and sits down in a high backed chair opposite a large moose. Drew had originally thought Bull was actually a bull, but he remembered that male moose are called bulls. The moose was known for asking the tough questions, but he did have a sense of humor, and they had assured Drew that they were not trying to do a slander job on humans. Judy had assured him that while other reporters were about trying to manipulate and sensationalize anything you said, Bull just wanted ratings and a good informative interview.

The anteater counted down from three on his claws and pointed at Bull and the lights came on the cameras.

Bull: "Good evening fellow Zootopians, I am here tonight with Human Ambassador Drew Stevens. He has agreed to answer questions I know most Zootopians have had about this new species of mammal called a human. While most politicians and celebrities I interview will only answer a list of prepared questions they had been given in advance, Drew has agreed to no such demands and only wishes to openly help Zootopians understand humans and the current negotiation he is undertaking."

Bull: "Now saying all that I will not go easy on him. This is his first interview ever as well as his first television appearance, but I would be doing a disservice to Zootopia if I did not ask those tough questions and I will do so right from the start."

Bull: "Drew, you have been chosen to represent Zootopia in negotiations with the humans. But you are not a Zootopian. How can we trust that you have our best intentions at heart and are not loyal to humanity instead?"

Drew: _laughs nervously_ "Bull, you weren't kidding about not going easy. But I can understand why Zootopians would be concerned having someone who was not born here, who has no family here and whose species doesn't exist in Zootopia represent their best interests."

Drew: "Upon becoming ambassador I was also granted citizenship of Zootopia. I have worked to rescue the citizens of your world and determine the truth behind the alliance of The Covenant and the humans. I have provided all information related to this alliance to the Zootopia authorities and was instrumental in saving the lives of many Zootopians at the West Plant. In addition my negotiations with the humans allowed us to save the lives of nearly a thousand citizens afflicted by the serum, and a negotiation I recently concluded resulted in the relatively safe return of three of the missing mammals back to Zootopia and to their families. I can understand why Zootopians might have mistrust, but I hope that all my actions have proven that I have Zootopia's best interests at heart."

Bull: "Very well said. I have been following some of your current negotiations and have been impressed with the accomplishments. That said, from what I have learned, humans appear to have a very warlike past and nature. How do you know the humans are not planning on bringing war to Zootopia to take what they wish and invade our land?"

Drew: "Bull, that is a very valid concern. I will admit human past has many examples where humans took what they wanted from other cultures and chose war instead of peaceful solutions. But steps and precautions have been taken at the portal to prevent any such action. The portal is very well guarded more than any place in Zootopia. The energy required to send any materials especially anything the size of organic humans is tremendous. Organic matter requires a much greater energy output as additional energy is used to protect the organic beings from being ripped apart by the forces of a wormhole. The time between sending any materials is substantial. Any humans that did try to go through the portal would have to be unconscious or they would most likely become insane. When I went through the portal I nearly did go insane and only did not because… well because of my Zootopian friend. In addition I was incredibly weak from the experience for at least half an hour. Any organic being or non-organic material sent through that is not approved would be captured and would break our pact with the humans. Every molecule going between dimensions is highly monitored. In addition, the outer perimeter of this facility is well guarded. As it stands it would be impossible for the humans to mount any kind of invasion force on Zootopia. If something did happen, Zootopia would have plenty of time to mount a massive force to repel any such action."

Bull begins to speak...

Drew: _holding up his hand politely_ "I want to assure the Zootopia public that if I felt any indication that the humans were not being honest and were planning anything detrimental to this world, I would make sure steps were taken to stop any such action. I have friends on the human side working on this same project from their ends and they are watching for any such suspicious actions. Everything the humans have done since contacting the rightful government of Zootopia has been in the name of peace and friendship. They have apologized profusely and have taken great steps to try and repair relationships between the two civilizations."

Bull: "Why do humans want Power-8 or as they call it He-3?"

Drew: "Unlike Zootopia, the human world is lacking safe clean energy alternatives. In order to support a massive population and growing advanced civilizations, humans have had to use energy sources which have damaged the very Earth that provides them life. Massive pollution, chemicals, carbon emissions and numerous other harmful things have resulted. Their world is becoming irreparably damaged. The problems have gotten worse and worse every year. Humanity is at a crossroads and if drastic steps are not undertaken to stop the use of these harmful energy sources, the planet will be poisoned so badly it can not even sustain life."

Drew: "The Power-8 is a clean energy source. It is non radioactive and has incredible potential power for nuclear fusion which is safe and can be inexpensively built. A negotiation among the human leaders of the world is seeking to provide this energy to eventually replace all harmful energy sources, and allow the Earth to recover and try to repair the damage that has been done."

Bull: "Do we have enough Power-8 for our own needs? Can Zootopia afford to provide the huge quantities required to sustain the energy needs of the humans?"

Drew: "Excellent question Bull. The Power-8 that was collected for Zootopia needs was apparently fairly easy to obtain. Current supplies in the Zootopia inventory are enough to supply power needs for the next 100 years. However a great deal of additional Power-8 is available in underground pockets that could be mined. Scientists have estimated that there is enough available to provide enough energy to supply the human's needs for the next 50 years. The humans would provide the expertise and plans to allow the mining of this Power-8 to supply the Earth demand. Once completed they would use landscaping technology to return the land to an unblemished form erasing any evidence of mining. "

Bull: "What happens after 50 Years?"

Drew: "Well the plan is to actively search for other alternative clean energy sources during this period to extend this time to 100 or more years. But the true hope is in the ability of the Power-8 to power vehicles for space exploration. Because of the huge power potential requiring only a small generator, vehicles could be developed to be powered on this fuel and be able to travel at speeds a thousands times faster than current human technology. Once the solar system is open to exploration many of the materials humans need including Power-8 would be available and could be supplied to Earth to supply energy needs."

Bull: "What do we Zootopians get for supplying this energy source?"

Drew: "Probably the most important question of all. Obviously The Covenant wanted to obtain the means to conquer and that is what they wanted from the humans. But the answer to this question for the peaceful citizens of Zootopia is more complicated. The most important thing I believe you will obtain is a valuable alliance and partnership with an immense species of fellow mammals. The potential sharing of knowledge between the two civilizations is vast and endless. Humanity has already been working with scientists in Zootopia to improve the efficiency of Power-8 even further, and improving the development of more compact generators. Instead of requiring huge power plants it should be possible to use much smaller and more efficient plants to supply the power needs of Zootopia. But the list of things that can be shared is endless… culture, entertainment, space technology, aviation technology, literature, music, art, foods and nutrition technology, biotechnology, history, computer technology, telecommunications technology and endless others. Realize that while Zootopia has many of these things there are billions of humans dedicated to expanding the knowledge in all these areas. Zootopia would gain access to the potential minds of nearly eight billion intelligent mammals. By helping to solve one of humanities greatest problems, you would have the eternal gratitude of the entire human planet. Right now the biggest question we are dealing with at my office is which of these we want to introduce and how to best integrate those into Zootopia life. The biggest issue is that we don't want to overwhelm Zootopia and disrupt your lifestyle. There are dangers inherent in some of these things and they require a good deal of research and testing to determine which of these to share and when.”

Bull: _surprised_ "Wow, I did not expect such an answer. I thought you were going to say something like you had some cool fashion trends to share."

Drew: _laughing_ "Oh we have those as well. I know of a certain bunny who has explored many of those. I would imagine if humanity knew of the existence of Zootopia we would have huge numbers clamoring for the latest Zootopian fashions.

Bull: "Ah that was one of my questions. I guess you are getting ahead. Why has humanity not been informed of our existence and who does know on your world?"

Drew: "The existence of the dimensional transfer device and Zootopia is probably the greatest secret in our world. Even the top officials in my countries government have been kept in the dark about the true source of the Power-8. The potential of any information leaking is too great. It is believed that the potential disruption the knowledge of the existence of intelligent mammals and the very existence of your world is far too great. While Zootopians have been used to the existence of numerous different intelligent mammal species, humans have only known one. To Zootopians humans are just one more intelligent mammal among thousands. To humans many believe they are the only truly intelligent species in the universe. The existence of an entire world of thousands of different intelligent species would be far too disruptive to the human self identity. The media storm and demand for access to your world would be beyond any words. Currently the only people who know of the true source of the Power-8 and the existence of your world are a handful of scientists working on the project, a handful of Government officials and a couple administrators at the research facility Cryodyne many of which have been detained in secure confinement for their role in harming the citizens of Zootopia."

Bull: "Whew, well I have some simpler questions so lets get to some of those. Will other humans be coming to Zootopia?"

Drew: "Well with the early misunderstanding it is felt that any such action could potentially jeopardize the new trust we are rebuilding between the two peoples. While such topics have been broached, the current plan is to revisit this question in six months and then see how the relationship has progressed. So the short answer Bull is that I guess you are stuck with just me for now."

Bull: _laughing_ "Well I am not sure we can handle more than one of you based on this interview."

Drew: _laughing_ "I assure you I am a bit of an anomaly for my species. I have been told that quite emphatically by most human females I have known, and not in a good way."

Bull: _mischievously_ "Ah, my sister wanted to know this one. Is there any female… or … male… Zootopian that interests you?"

Drew: _nervously_ "Wow I really stepped on that landmine. Oh sorry, I forgot you don't have those. I kind of stepped in a pile of dung. That is a bit of a personal question. I will say I believe the answer is yes, but I am still uncertain how to proceed. That one I am still wrestling with. I apologize for not answering the question in detail as I have with all others."

Bull: _nods_ "That is certainly fine. It was my fault for asking such a question. This is not a gossip show. I hope you can forgive me."

Drew: "Of course. I just left it wide open with my reference and you wouldn't be the great reporter you are for not asking it."

Bull: _smiling_ "The correct final question I meant to ask, instead of the previous one, was how is it being the only human on our world? It must be lonely."

Drew: "Well, to be honest I have to admit that it is lonely. But I have been welcomed here and have made many friends closer even than most of my human friends. After spending a bit of time here the differences between humans and other species kind of blur. You kind of get used saying hi to a bear, a wolf, a sheep and a squirrel while walking down the street. You don't see these as animals or other species, you just see them as people just as if I was walking down a street in a human city except they seem to be friendlier here. Sure I get a lot of strange looks, but I get a great many smiles and waves as well. As I get to know more Zootopians, I begin to see far more similarities than differences. We are mammals just like the rest of you. We may look different but deep down we want the same things."

Bull: _smiling, standing and shaking Drew_ _hand with his hoof_ "Well said Ambassador. Well said."

The broadcast light turns off and anteater technician comes and stands on the stage making a hand gesture moving his claw under his chin as if he was cutting his own neck.

Anteater Technician: "All right that's a wrap people!" _points to the tech booth in back_ "Roll credits."

Drew walks off stage as a squirrel removes a small microphone off him.

Judy meets him offstage.

Judy: _smiling big_ "Great Job! I am so proud of you."

She hops up into the air and kisses him on the nose and upper lip and then lands.

Drew blushes.

Judy grabs Drew's hand and pulls him towards the door to the studio.

Judy: _excited_ "I have some more mammals for you to meet… well a lot of them actually… we going on a little trip."

Drew: _looking at her curiously and thinking_ "Ah wait, I have some things I need to pack."

* * *

Finnick picked up Drew, Judy and Nick early the next day and they headed to Bunnyburrow. Sure Drew could have borrowed a fancy vehicle from the government motor pool, but it just felt right with everyone driving together in Finnick's van for some reason. Finnick and Nick went to meet up with Tala who dragged the pair of foxes around showing them off to some of her friends and catching them up on what she had been doing.

Judy and Drew wandered around the farm as Judy showed him the many fields, barns and equipment. She took him to her favorite spot on top a grassy hill next to a small oak tree which provided a bit of shade. She put down a large blanket and they lay down on it on their backs staring up at the sky. They sat in silence enjoying the beautiful sunny day with a slight cool breeze. It was so nice just relaxing for once. Drew thought this was the first time he had truly relaxed since… well he couldn't even remember when. Sometimes it was just nice to not say anything at all.

He held her paw in his right hand and closed his eyes just enjoying the moment. One peaceful moment. Every muscle in his body felt relaxed. All the stress and strain from non-stop worry about rescuing Judy from the laboratory and research facility… trying to keep her from dying of infection… trying to discover what the humans and research group were doing to her people… trying to recruit resources to get her home… trying to break into the top secret facility… trying to avoid dying at the hands of guards… trying to not go completely insane from a transfer through a dimensional wormhole… trying to avoid their deaths from The Covenant… trying to defeat the Covenant so that her coworkers could wrest control from a group bent on taking control of her world… trying to bring her back from a mental prison… trying to negotiate to save so many innocent Zootopia citizens… trying to organize the most important pact in his species history… trying to manage the public perception for his work to gain political good will to accomplish so many works… trying to manage his feelings for…

He sensed something watching him.

He sensed a lot of somethings watching him.

Drew opened his eyes and found he was surrounded by a wall of bunnies. Bunnies of different sizes. Most had the same coloring as Judy. Some had a bit more white. Some had a bit more brown. There was a whole variety of features. From what he knew of bunnies here most seemed to be around six to sixteen years old. The were all staring at him expectantly. He looked to his right and saw Judy was looking at him as well grinning.

He looked down and forgot he still held Judy's paw and released it embarrassed, and pushed himself with his arms so his back leaned against the oak while he sat up while seated. All the bunnies sat down like Judy in a large circle all at once as if by a magic signal.

They all seemed to be waiting for him to do something. He hated when he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing so he just said.

Drew: _cautiously_ "Umm, Hi?"

This appeared to be the signal they were waiting for as all of a sudden he heard twenty voices all asking questions at once.

Judy: _pleading_ "Guys… come on… one at a time please… these are some of my younger siblings… and they don't know their manners. "

Before he knew it they had all scooted in so there was no light between them and they were all less than a meter from him. He was encased in a solid wall of fluffy.

Gerald: "What's Earth like?"

Drew: "Well it is very similar to here… actually almost exactly the same except there are humans and the other mammals are very primitive."

Starla: "How are the rabbits there different?"

Drew: "Well most of the rabbits seem to be smaller than ones here and they are primitive. They almost never stand on two legs. Your legs and bodies appear to be quite a bit different as you evolved to walk on two legs. You have large forward facing eyes instead of being on the side."

Bopsy: "What do humans eat?"

Drew: "Humans are omnivores similar to bears and foxes. We eat fish and meat..."

Many Voices: "Ewwwwwwwwww"

Drew: "and fruits, vegetables, grains and some animal products such as milk, eggs and cheese."

Paige: _disgustedly like she ate something sour_ "How can you eat that! That is disgusting."

Drew: "Well we would never eat an intelligent mammal. And I certainty won't eat anything like that here. I suppose I will stick with fish and those insect burger things you guys have instead of eating any meat."

Taavi: "Are you a predator or prey?"

Drew: "A bit of both I suppose."

Octavia: "What do you miss the most from the human world?"

Drew: "The internet."

Keisha: "What's that?"

Drew: "It is where all the computers are connected together and you can look up the answers to everything and find pretty much anything instantly."

Sabrina: "Wow.. can we get one?"

Drew: "I'm working on that."

Billy: "What do you like to do for fun?"

Drew: _looking at Judy_ "Well… I like to hang out with friends."

Janice: "Are you Judy's boyfriend?"

Drew: _embarrassed_ "Well… I will defer that question to your sister."

They all turn and stare at Judy.

Candice: "Judy?"

Judy: "That's a bit complicated, now let's go get lunch."

She stands up.

Many Voices: _frustrated_ "Awwwwwww…"

Judy, Drew and the army of bunnies head toward an area where there were numerous wooden tables covered in cloths and a wide array of food and drinks laid out. The kids all got excited and hopped off toward the tables.

Judy: "Sorry for the third degree. They are just really curious."

Drew: "It's okay… they are really cu… adorable."

Judy: "Thrown by that question, eh?"

She didn't have to say which question.

Drew: "A bit. I know you Zootopians are very accepting of strange… I mean unusual… I mean different..."

Judy: "You really overthink things too much. You need to learn to take a Zootopia view if you are going to live here."

Drew: "I am just still having a bit of a problem with the whole concept of being with..."

Judy: "I'm just so hideous to you humans is that it?" She rolls her eyes and head back putting her paw facing forward above her head in mock despair.

Drew: _laughs_ "Judy, you know that's not it. If it wasn't **you** it would have never entered my mind. I wouldn't even remotely consider it with anyone else."

Judy: _teasing_ "Well after what humans did to me, If I can handle that then you can deal with the stupid concept Buster!" She pokes him in the ribs with her paw.

Drew: "Ow… well you have a point… I suppose you are right."

Judy: "Glad to know it is finally settled and you finally see I am always right and there is no use in arguing with me unlike Nick. Now where is Nick?"

They found Nick playing with Finnick and Tala and joined them at a table for the picnic.

As everyone sat around the table passing food and chatting Drew was a bit preoccupied and silent thinking to himself.

 _How is it that the only female he has ever felt comfortable with was a different species from a different world. Life is certainly strange I'll grant you that. Interesting but very strange. I figure it is the gods or fate or something up there having a laugh saying let's do something nice for him for once in his life but let's make it the most complicated nice thing fraught with pitfalls we can possibly find. He laughed to himself. Well this has the makings of the most challenging year of my life by a factor of a hundred._ (And looking back at this in the near future he had no clue how prophetic this statement would be).

Judy broke his musing.

Judy: _confiding_ "You know back in the motel I had a dream or premonition that was very similar to all this. I had meant to ask you about it."

Judy tells him about the dream she had about the humans and her friends and family having a picnic in Bunnyburrow.

Judy: "The girl could have been Mia but she had blonde hair and the man looked very similar to your Colonel but they are not here. What could that mean? Were they supposed to be here?"

Drew thinks a bit before answering.

Drew: "Well dreams or premonitions are not always literal. The girl could have been Mia but the blonde hair may have represented an ascension from darkness to light. From an adversarial position to one of trust and goodness. The reason for their absence could be that they were here in spirit as representatives of the humans that helped you return to your home and helped Zootopia save this magnificent idealistic place that is represented by this beautiful scene rather than what it could have been become if they had not helped."

Judy: "How is dreaming this possible before all those things happened?"

Drew: "There are many such things I have experienced that I can not explain. It is possible in your subconscious that somehow you were able to access a plane where you could see the future possibilities and this is what sense your mind made of it. From talking to Finnick and Tala about their adventure there may be something similar between your sister and yourself. It is nearly impossible to quantify such things. You can only just be open to them and explore them as they make themselves known."

Judy: _looking uncomfortable_ "Well it kind of gives me the creeps."

Drew: "Well as long as it seems to be a benevolent manifestation like for you and your sister then I think you are just fine."

Judy shudders.

Bonnie and Stu come by and greet Drew. Drew remained seated at the table but turned around to face them. He remained seated so he would be close to the same eye level. Judy stood next to him and Bonnie and Stu stood across.

They thanked him for saving Judy and bringing her back home to them. They say that Judy has told them all about him.

Drew: _warmly_ "She has told me all about you guys as well. On many occasions. It is so nice to finally meet you."

Bonnie: _doting_ "Have you gotten enough to eat? We are bringing out some of Maw Maw's special carrot cake in a few minutes. You have to try some."

Stu: _in awe_ "Jude said you were tall but."

Drew: "I'm just average height for a human."

Stu: "Well, pretty tall for a rabbit."

Drew: _laughs_ "I can imagine. Well you guys are a lot taller and larger than most of the bunnies where I come from."

Judy: _smiling_ "I am just glad we all could finally meet. I have been waiting to tell our story to you guys until all four of us were together."

Drew: _putting his head down and whispering very low_ "Not the whole whole story I hope."

There was a few things in the story he would rather not have Judy's parents hear.

Judy: _cupping her hand and whispering in his ear_ "Just leave the details to me and I will prompt you for input."

Judy: "Well that will take awhile so we can do that a bit later when we have some privacy."

Stu: "Sure Jude, I can't wait."

Bonnie: "We've all been so curious."

Drew: _remembering something_ "Oh… I have something for you guys."

Drew stands up and wanders over and whispers to Tala and Finnick. He lifts a large brown case out of Finnick's van and heads back to the table and sits facing the Hopps family.

He puts the large brown case on the table and motions the family over and opens the case up.

It is filled with hundreds and hundreds of bags of seeds. All the things he kept on his list from the motel that Judy loved best that she told him they didn’t have in Zootopia.

Judy: _in shocked wonder_ "How?"

Drew: "I had them prepare it and send it over to me in the last delivery. "

Judy: _wide-eyed looking through them all_ "Oh HoneyCrisp Apples, pears, melons... so many different varieties, so many different fruits and vegetables… Oh my! I can't believe you did all this. All the things I loved that I said I never had tried before. You kept the list?"

Judy starts to tear up and sob.

Bonnie and Stu start to gently pat her on the back and hold her arm.

Stu: _concerned_ "It's okay Jude what's wrong?"

Bonnie: _poking him_ "She's happy Stu. She's fine."

Judy hugs all three of them with tears in her eyes.

Drew: "I figured I owed it to you guys… for giving birth and raising such a special daughter who saved me more than I saved her."

Judy: _wiping some tears from her eyes_ "I just wish you guys could try them."

Drew partially stands up and makes a come here motion to Tala and Finnick so they can see him.

Drew sits back down talking to the Hopps.

Drew: "Well I just so happened to… "

Tala and Finnick arrive carrying a large box full of fruits and vegetables.

Judy opens it up and sees dozens of varieties apples and pears, peppers and tons of other fruits and vegetables. She even finds a bunch of the juice boxes she liked best and holds them up showing them to her parents excitedly.

Tala and Finnick start to bring more boxes from the car.

Judy and her parents stare open mouthed.

Drew: "We have several more boxes in the van."

Judy: _stunned_ "I thought those were Finnick's ill gotten goods. But the cost… The cost to send all those through..."

Judy knew how valuable and rare anything coming through the dimension was. The energy costs to transfer anything from the human world to Zootopia were astronomical. Only critical mining parts and plans not easily made in Zootopia were being sent right now.

Drew: _holding Judy's paw_ "I owe you guys more than you could possibly know. It is the very least I could do."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: Here ends Volume 1. Volume 2 is currently halfway through production and is posted. The story will be less technical and less science fiction but will focus more on drama, adventure, romance and tragedy with a great deal more humor and fun thrown in to counter the many heavy themes that will be presented. It has a backstory which will present a huge story within a story of epic proportions about a character from legend and the dark mysterious past of Zootopia. The central theme will focus on what ideals and principles characters are willing to fight for and even die for. Do you stand by and do nothing as things happen to your friends, family or fellow citizens or do you find a way to resist and fight for things greater than yourself? Humanity will play a role but a different one than in Vol 1. Can the lessons of humanities past determine the future of Zootopia? Can humanity be a solution rather than an impediment? I hope you enjoyed Volume 1. It was so difficult trying to get everything just right. But it was a lot of fun as well. I learned with every chapter and was very proud of the final 11 chapters which represent half the total work as they were almost exactly what I wanted.


End file.
